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 · 2 passages · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 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.
西江已渡僕逋亡。應恐新京餒爾膓。取雞折葼猶未覓。問渠何處固深藏。
Having already crossed the Seogang (西江), my servant ran away;
I worry that in the new capital your belly will go hungry.
I have taken a chicken and broken a switch, but still cannot find you —
tell me, in what place are you hidden so fast and so deep?
Interlinear notes 2
移都後
This is after the capital was moved.
取雞折葼 — this is the passage about searching for the runaway servant. 折葼 is to break off a switch, but what 取雞, joined to it, refers to could not be settled from the source text alone. — the translator
蕭家僕有猒嚴笞。猶解憐文莫敢離。爾主才麤宜且去。胡爲略不德吾慈。
The servant of the Xiao (蕭) household hated how harsh the beatings were,
yet still knew to cherish letters and did not dare to leave.
They say your master's talent is coarse, so leaving is only fitting —
but why do you feel not the least gratitude for my kindness?