Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 1
Admonishing the Dog (諭犬)諭犬
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.
我家雖素貧。食祿許多斛。恐爾䑛穢物。亦許日飡穀。胡奈不知足。盜我所藏肉。戀主雖可尊。巧偸良不淑。我有手中杖。鞭之足令服。守門任莫重。未忍加慘酷。
Though my house has always been poor, the stipend I receive comes to many bushels. Fearing that you would lick at filthy things, I allowed you grain to eat each day. Why then, not knowing when to be content, did you steal the meat I had put away? That you are devoted to your master is to be prized, but such deft thieving is truly not good. There is a stick in my hand, and a beating would be enough to bring you to heel; but the charge of guarding the gate is weighty, and I cannot bring myself to be so harsh.