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

Matching the rhymes of Kim of the Eastern Pavilion, who answered this poem and sent it to me次韻金東閣和此詩來贈

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 · 120 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 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.

我琴無節奏。五音俱失適。手生猶喜彈。指禿略無惜。免似杜夔工。公宴作難色。任人聞不聞。貴我洩幽臆。雖欲學之人。之人亦難覓。君子於德聲。必本絃上索。粗厲與嘽緩。莊成及廉直。宣聲者器耳。感實由中激。子詩細評論。豈獨辭潤石。爪肉淸濁理。問君何從得。以予近方諳。如味舊甞食。由其中吾心。勿要譜家釋。

My gayageum has neither measure nor tune, and the five notes have all lost their places. Clumsy as my hand is, I still delight in playing, and though my fingers are blunt I do not grudge it in the least. Since I am not like Du Kui (杜夔) in skill, I shall never have to wear an awkward face at an official feast. Let others hear it or not hear it as they will; what I hold precious is that I pour out my hidden breast. And even if I wished to learn, someone to teach me would also be hard to find. In the matter of the sound of virtue, the gentleman always takes seeking it upon the strings as his root. Rough and fierce, easy and gentle, weighty, clear and upright — all are there. What spreads the sound is only the instrument; the feeling truly wells up from within and strikes out. Your poem argued the matter closely; how should its words merely give luster to stone? The principle of the clear and the muddy in nail and flesh — I ask you, where did you come by it? I myself have only lately understood it, and it is like tasting again a food I used to taste. Since it suits my heart, there is no need to seek the gloss of a maker of scores.

Interlinear notes 2

冲義

That is Chungui (冲義).

予近因脫爪。以肉指彈之。聲甚濁。不及銛爪時。君詩詳此理。未知何從得也。

My nails have lately come off, so I play with the bare flesh of my fingers, and the sound is very muddy, not what it was with sharp nails. Your poem spoke of this principle in detail, and I do not know where you heard it.

‹ Matching the rhymes of my pupil Yang Sinseong, who answered meContentsMatching the rhymes of Pak, Director of the Secretariat, who answered the poem I gave my son-in-law in thanks for the gayageum, then came to visit and gave it to me ›Listen to this piece