Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 4

Asking for ink bamboo又以長篇二首。求墨竹與寫眞。 求墨竹

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 · 170 Chinese characters · reading time 1.9 min

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.

竹本吾所愛。愛之兄弟亞。所以見其眞。翫惜靡暫捨。丁君於此戱。聲價滿夷夏。爭持雪色紈。或未得一朶。我以硬牋求。餘生謂足過。其實家本貧。買絹苦擡價。多君不之訾。四榦一揮寫。一榦蒙露濡。一榦困風簸。一榦老且折。大葉猶不墮。一榦新解籜。雖弱能遠跨。畫品非關地。信美非不可。翻思友執間。撫掌必笑我。孰於巨官人。而謂貧非詐。一涉鄙吝論。慙顔得不赭。謀婦得麤素。未識從誰借。雖非淵客工。豈落楮生下。請復掃一莖。予豈孤恩者。

Bamboo is what I have loved from the first, loving it next after my own brothers. And so, when I behold its true form, I cherish and delight in it, never letting it go a moment. Master Jeong (丁君) excels at this sport, and his renown fills the borderlands and China. Though they come vying with silk white as snow, some do not get even a single spray. I made my request with stiff paper, saying it would be more than enough for the rest of my life. The truth is that my house was poor from the first, and to buy silk I was galled by the soaring price. Kindly you did not rebuke me, but painted four stalks at a single sweep of the brush. One stalk is wet with dew, one stalk is tossed and winnowed by the wind, one stalk has grown old and broken, yet its great leaves still have not fallen. One stalk has just shed its sheath, and though tender it can reach far. The quality of a painting does not hang upon its ground; it is truly beautiful, and there is nothing it may not be. Turning it over, I think that among my friends they will clap their hands and be sure to laugh at me: "Who, speaking of a high officeholder, would say that talk of his poverty is no pretense?" Once caught in talk of being stingy, how can a shamed face keep from reddening? I schemed with my wife and got coarse white silk, though from whom it was borrowed I do not know. Even if it is not the work of the weavers under the water, how should it fall below Master Mulberry Paper? I beg you, sweep out one stalk more — am I a man to be false to a kindness?

Interlinear notes 1

予前詩云。

This is what I said in the preceding poem.

‹ Asking for a portrait to be paintedContentsAgain, in two long poems, asking for ink bamboo and a portrait ›Listen to this piece