Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 1
A Child Abandoned on the Road路上棄兒
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.
虎狼雖虐不傷雛。何嫗將兒棄道途。今歲稍穰非乏食。也應新嫁媚於夫。
Tigers and wolves are fierce, yet they do not harm their own young — what mother has abandoned her child on the road? This year the harvest was fair enough and food is not wanting, so most likely she has married anew and would please her husband
若曰今年稍歉飢。提孩能喫幾多匙。母兒一旦成讐敵。世薄民漓已可知。
Even if this year were a little lean and there were hunger, how many spoonfuls could a small child eat? Mother and child have become enemies in a single morning, and one can already see how mean the world is and how dry its hearts have grown