Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 1

Two Admonitions, Written for a Friend二誡詩贈友人

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 1 passages · 110 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 1 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.

予以燕伐燕。酒色誡親友。蠱人莫若色。毒人莫如酒。丈夫貴嗇身。子可割斷不。荅云君之言。百不中吾意。與其薄味生。孰若快意死。人生要有死。但存先後耳。毋謂生可娛。焉知死亦如。苟謂生甚勞。死逸迺良圖。何必要其生。枯槁守一軀。子言與吾左。孰得孰失歟。酒色人所嗜。必以我言迂。

Mine is the case of attacking Yan with the men of Yan, yet I admonished a close friend against wine and women Nothing beguiles a man like women nothing harms a man like wine A man holds it precious to spare his own body — can you cut them off?

He answered: of your words not one of a hundred suits my mind Rather than live without savor, is it not better to die enjoying oneself as one pleases? A man, once born, is bound to die; there is only sooner and later Do not say that living alone is a joy — how do you know it will not be so after death as well? If living is truly so toilsome, then the ease of death is the better plan Why insist on living only, guarding one lone body, withered and gaunt? Your words and mine run counter to each other — who has gained and who has lost? Wine and women are what people relish, so they will surely call my words the talk of one who knows nothing of the world