Matching the Rhymes of Bai Letian's (白樂天) "Living at Leisure on a Spring Day"次韻白樂天春日閑居
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 · 1 passages · 99 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 min
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.
The spring wind sends itself upon the flowering garden,
and the morning sun lights the high house.
A boy supports me, so my walking is not lonely;
guests have stopped coming, so my sitting has become solitary.
The flowers of the grove spit out a thin red,
and the grasses of the yard spread a deep green.
Of orchids I have tended a little over three furrows;
of medicinal herbs, one ridge planted is enough.
The trees have gained in brightness and rising sap,
thanks to their bathing in last night's new rain.
Do not think it strange that the vegetable sprouts are slow;
the soil of my house has little richness in it.
Sweet shepherd's purse comes up of itself and grows thick,
fit for the soup pot, and that pleases my mind.
I draw my pillow over and lie by the south window,
my hair loose and left unbound.
What has no sound delights my ears,
and what has no color gladdens my eyes.
Even so, I call the servant once more
to rinse the cup and pour the clear wine.