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

Matching the rhymes of Academician Yi, who answered again the poem on the rhyme of the character "inside" (內) and sent it to me次韻李學士復和內字韻詩見寄

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 · 2 passages · 196 Chinese characters · reading time 2 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.

1The first poem

六合之外置莫論。吾與夫子游方內。死生壽夭付自然。譬觀晝夜相明晦。平生事業於分足。雲漢飛騰亦幾載。虛心漸欲游物初。跂足何曾求券外。嬴劉顚蹶子何言。其後紛更非一代。興亡酬酢何時窮。此理無人能自會。吾儕不用談古今。飮酒正宜秋暑退。

Set aside what lies beyond the six directions and do not speak of it; you and I roam inside this world. Leave dying and living, long life and early death, to nature, and liken them to seeing night and day take turns as light and dark. The affairs of a lifetime are ample for my lot, and how many years was it that I flew up to the River of Heaven? With an empty mind I would roam by degrees at the beginning of things; when have I ever stood on tiptoe to seek what lies beyond my lot? What do you say of the toppling of Qin (秦) and Han (漢)? After them, too, the confusion and overturning was not of one age only. When will the giving and taking back of rise and ruin come to an end? There is no man who grasps this principle for himself. Let us say nothing of the old days and the present: the autumn heat has withdrawn as well, so let us drink wine.

Interlinear notes 2

百全

That is Baekjeon (百全).

君詩云。嬴顚劉蹶眞一吷。

Your poem said, "The toppling of Qin and the overturning of Han were truly one breath's sound."

2The second poem

昔君先我解腰章。愧我猶居韁鎖內。我能相踵告歸休。宴息隨時方嚮晦。曾於䆠海同浮沈。得喪榮枯三十載。幸今各處安閑中。萬事已拋拘檢外。莫敎胷貯一點累。好遣光陰互推代。一門超出妙蓮花。喜君近者得冥會。元明本覺若廓開。對境前塵從此退。

In the old days you loosed the seal at your waist before I did, while I, to my shame, was still inside halter and chain. I too followed after and begged leave to withdraw, and rest at ease as the times allow, going down toward evening. Once we rose and sank together on the sea of office, getting and losing, blooming and falling, for thirty years. Happily we are now each in ease and leisure, and have already thrown all affairs outside our bonds. Let us store up not one point of hindrance in the breast, and see the years well on as they take their turns. To leap out by a single gate is the wondrous lotus, and I am glad you have of late met its deep meaning. When the bright awakening that was there from the first opens wide, the realms you face and the dust before you will withdraw from then on.

Interlinear notes 1

君近好讀楞嚴。

You have of late been fond of reading the Śūraṃgama Sūtra.

‹ Matching the rhymes of Vice Minister Yi, who answered the gayageum poem and sent it to me Contents Matching the rhymes to answer Pak, Director of the Secretariat, again ›Listen to this piece