Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 1
Chanting of Chrysanthemums詠菊
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.
春風三月百花紅。不及秋天菊一叢。芳艶耐寒猶可愛。殷勤更入酒盃中。
Though a hundred flowers redden in the third month when the spring wind blows, they do not match one clump of chrysanthemums under an autumn sky Fragrant and fair, they bear the cold, and so are the more lovable, and quietly they come once more into the wine cup
耐霜猶足勝春紅。閱過三秋不去叢。獨爾花中剛把節。未宜輕折向筵中。
Bearing the frost, they more than outdo the red flowers of spring, and through all three months of autumn they do not leave their clump Among flowers you alone hold firm to your constancy, so it is not fitting to break you lightly and send you to a banquet