Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 5

On the Sixth of the Ninth Month, Hearing That Barbarian Troops Had Encamped Beyond the River, and the People of the Country Could Not but Be Alarmed, I Soothed Them with a Poem九月六日。聞虜兵來屯江外。國人不能無驚。以詩解之。

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 · 50 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 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.

虜種雖云頑。安能飛渡水。彼亦知未能。來以耀兵耳。誰能諭到水。到水卽皆死。愚民且莫驚。高枕甘爾寐。行當自退歸。國業寧遽已。

Though the barbarian tribe be called strong how should they fly across the water? They too know it cannot be done and only come to make a show of their troops Who will tell them that reaching the water they will all die the moment they reach it? Foolish people, do not be alarmed but lay your pillows high and sleep sweetly Before long they will withdraw and go back of themselves how should the work of the country suddenly end?