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 · 3 passages · 82 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 2 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.
予常居室偏之南軒。澹如也。因自號南軒居士。或自稱南軒長老云。
I always live in the south hall at one side of the house, and it is plain and spare. So I have styled myself the Layman of the South Hall (南軒居士), and sometimes call myself the Elder of the South Hall.
Interlinear notes 1
二首○幷序
Two poems. A preface is attached as well.
南軒居士計如何。所蓄雖多擧最奢。淡酒一壺詩一簏。冲虛經卷與楞伽。
What are the household goods of the Layman of the South Hall?
Much though he holds, if one names the most extravagant:
a bottle of thin wine and a hamper of poems,
a scroll of the Chungheo Classic (冲虛經) and the Lankavatara Sutra (楞伽經).
Interlinear notes 1
一作略可誇。
In some texts this reads "worth boasting of."
頭禿身閑坐作趺。不同僧處獨髭鬚。南軒長老修何業。案有楞伽得解無。
My head is bald, my body idle, and I sit in the lotus posture;
what differs from a monk is the beard alone.
What practice does the Elder of the South Hall cultivate?
The Lankavatara lies on his desk, but whether he has understood it, I cannot say.