Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 3
Still cold, though it is the third month三月猶寒
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 3 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.
二月猶嫌寒。矧玆季春半。非關待花忙。所恐時候反。門柳搖金遲。溪氷破鏡晚。鳥喑無好音。蟲出思舊窾。兒童且添炭。甁醞聊可暖。
Even in the second month I still hated the cold How much more here in the middle of late spring It is not that I am in haste waiting for the flowers But that I fear the season may run backward The willow by the gate is slow to shake out its gold And the ice in the stream is late to break its mirror The birds are hoarse and have no lovely voice And the insects, having come out, long for their old holes Boy, put on more charcoal We may at least warm the wine steeped in the bottle