Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 3
The Rose (薔薇)薔薇
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.
穠艶煌煌綠暗間。巧粧金粉媚嬌顔。莫因帶刺爲花累。意欲防人取次攀。
Its deep beauty is bright, shining amid the green shade, and adorned with golden powder, it coaxes with a lovely face. Do not make its having thorns a fault of the flower — it means to keep people from pulling at it carelessly.
Interlinear notes 1
樂天云。薔薇帶刺攀應懶。
A poem by Bai Letian (白樂天) says, "The rose has thorns and shuns having people pull at it."