Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 4
Chanting the Rain on the Double Seventh七夕詠雨
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 4 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.
七夕少不雨。予莫知其故。靈匹將成歡。雨師應自妬。欲敎烏鵲侶。霑重落中路。假令橋未成。河水不可渡。寧且泳而歸。此夕難虛度。明年若復雨。忍可長懷慕。
On the Double Seventh it seldom fails to rain, and I do not know the reason for it. The divine pair are about to make their joy complete, and the rain god, no doubt, grows jealous of its own accord. He would have the flocks of crows and magpies be soaked through and drop on the way. Even if the bridge is not made and the River of Heaven cannot be crossed, better to swim across than not go at all. This night is hard to let pass in vain. If next year it rains again, how could one bear only to long, and for so long?