Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 2

On the Winter Solstice, Sending a New Almanac to Academician Yi (冬至。以新曆寄李學士)冬至。以新曆寄李學士

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 · 40 Chinese characters · reading time 0.4 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.

喜得明年曆。寄他同調人。期君巡甲子。亥首下如身。

Glad to have got next year's almanac, I send it to one of like mind. May you go round the full sixty years, and then live more than twice as long again.

Interlinear notes 2

百全。○二首

Academician Yi's name was Baekjeon (百全). Two poems.

予與君俱致仕。

Both you and I have withdrawn from office.

君家非所欠。奉寄意如何。願效年年獻。看公壽漸多。

It is not that your house lacks one, so what do you make of my sending it with respect? Following the custom of presenting one year after year, I wish to see your years, sir, grow longer by degrees.