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 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.
One old man with whiskers like frost,
whose body does not fill even six feet.
How much is the stipend he receives?
Three hundred and fifty seom.
His belly bulges on the outside,
but within it is truly narrow and cramped.
Most days he is like a sick man,
taking no more than a few spoonfuls of rice.
Each day he drinks three or four cups,
and with this he passes morning and evening.
Kinsmen and old friends,
servants and children —
the only one they look up to is this old man,
yet drunk and full, they do not know it themselves.
All this is what is left over from the stipend heaven granted,
and many mouths are wetted by its liquor.
That wealth and rank are for the sake of others —
the words of the ancients do not go wrong.
This morning I looked into the clear mirror,
and my face is not what it was yesterday.
Once I have gone into the coffin,
where does this whole crowd mean to go?