Calling on Kim Daenyeon (金大年) in the Snow and Being Kept for Wine雪中訪金大年留飮
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 · 80 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 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.
Worn out with age, I have no discernment at all
and no longer divine whether it will be cloudy or clear
I stepped out of the gate and the snow began to fall;
walking the road I braved the stern cold of dawn
Wind sharp as arrows swept past my ears,
snow-blossoms froze thick and clung to my beard
I did not know that my green cap had blown away —
what leisure had I to look for a green tavern banner?
Luckily your house was there,
with not the least look of shrinking from a tiresome guest
Our talk had just grown warm and close
and the wine little by little came to its mellow height
A moment ago I was driven by cold and hunger;
all at once I met with drink and a full belly together
You kept me here — how should I not be moved?
The ice is slippery and my feet can hardly hold