Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 2
Sending Yellow Mandarins to Academician Yi (李學士)以黃柑寄李學士
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.
弄來唯是一跳丸。品貴都緣遠到難。數箇餉君雖可愧。玉池津液有時乾。
Turning one over in the hand, it is no more than a bouncing pellet; all that makes its rank precious is that it comes hard from afar. I am ashamed to send you only a few, yet the spring within the mouth too runs dry at times.
Interlinear notes 1
百全
The Academician Yi's given name is Baekjeon (百全).
紫殿年年侍宴迴。面承君賜爛盈懷。從今此事應難得。倦馬思休已乞骸。
Year after year, returning from attending the banquet at the palace, I received the king's gift before his face, and it shone brimming in my robe. From now on such a thing will be hard to come by again, for the tired horse thinks of rest, and I have already begged to retire.
Interlinear notes 1
昨方上表乞退。
Only yesterday I submitted the memorial begging leave to retire.