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 · 3 passages · 84 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 5 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.
1First Poem
已拋腰綬作閑人。半俸猶存食不貧。何事無窮不平事。每來胷底大傷神。
I have already cast off the seal-cord at my waist and become a man at leisure
Even half a stipend remains, so I am not poor in food
Why is it that endless matters not at peace
always come beneath my breast and grievously wound my spirit?
Interlinear notes 1
三首
Three poems.
2Second Poem
老猶食祿聖恩優。略釀如堪得寫憂。遮箇心頭不平事。殆因胡虜滿方州。
Old as I am I still eat the stipend; the king's grace is thick
Brew a little wine and it is enough to pour out my cares
This matter in my heart that is not at peace
is likely because the barbarians fill every district
3Third Poem
胡虜猖狂一國愁。汝何爲者作私憂。尙餘方寸丹心在。縱曰懸車豈肯休。
The barbarians rage madly and the whole country grieves
What sort of man are you, to grieve over private cares?
Still, in an inch of breast a red heart remains
and because I have laid down office, how should it cease?