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

Wishing to Put Away Three Things and Not Yet Able, I First Whip Myself with a Poem欲屛三物。今未爾。先以詩自激。

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 · 190 Chinese characters · reading time 1.7 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.

1Preface

夫非所長而嗜之。適爲人笑。若予者。琴手澁。酒膽劣。書則老境所可屛者。而猶嗜此三者。不亦惑乎。其於道也遠矣。方有屛之之意。故作此詩云爾。

In general, when one takes pleasure in what one is not good at, one ends by becoming a laughingstock. As for a man like me, my hand on the geomungo is rough, my strength for holding wine is weak, and books are what ought properly to be put away in old age. Yet I take pleasure in these three things — is this not delusion as well? It is far from the Way. Now, having a mind to put them away, I make this poem.

Interlinear notes 1

幷序

The preface is appended as well.

琴橫膝上書置前。弄得數聲看數字。時復酌數盃。不覺頹然醉。書特萬篇蠹簡之煩言。琴迺三尺枯桐之虛器。若循輪扁語。糟粕不必嗜。若得陶潛趣。何勞絃上指。唯此飮中事。欲捨未遽已。醇則適其口。醨則拂其意。是亦由吾道未全。苟全於道何有是。天下無正味。食薦甘帶孰定美。差夫三物者。適爲心之累。安得揔相遺然後。庶幾蹈道忘懷之君子。

The geomungo laid across my knees, a book before me I pluck a few notes and look at a few characters At times I pour a few more cups and before I know it I am drunk as if falling over Books are only the cumbersome words of ten thousand worm-eaten bamboo slips and the geomungo is but an empty vessel of three feet of dried paulownia If one follows the words of Lun Bian (輪扁) there is nothing to enjoy in the dregs of the ancients If one had got the mind of Tao Qian (陶潛) why trouble one's fingers upon the strings? Only this business of drinking wine I mean to cast off, yet cannot readily give up Strong wine suits my mouth thin wine goes against my will This too is because my Way is not whole were I whole in the Way, how would such a thing be? Under heaven there is no fixed taste the deer eats grass and the centipede finds the snake sweet — who fixes what is fine? Ah, those three things end by becoming the heart's hindrance How, only after casting them all away together shall I come near the gentleman who treads the Way and forgets his cares?

‹ A Fire at the Neighboring Courtesans' HouseContentsAfter the Common Chrysanthemums Were All Gone, Seeing the Famed Chrysanthemum in Full Bloom Toward the End of the Ninth Month, I Loved It and Chanted of It ›Listen to this piece