Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 5
Heavy Snow at Dawn on the Eighth of the Tenth Month十月八日五更大雪
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
不知雪色誤窓明。已責晨雞號太晚。此鳥如聞應笑我。一牽虛見迷昏旦。
Not knowing it was the snow's light that falsely brightened the window I had already scolded the dawn cock for crowing too late If that bird had heard, it would surely laugh at me for being led by one false seeing to confuse evening with morning
2Second Poem
此時方始作初冬。再見雪華堆似玉。麥熟明年定不疑。但期不落桑田卜。
This is only the beginning of winter and this is the second time I see snow-blossoms heaped like jade That next year's barley will ripen is beyond doubt I only hope the omen for the mulberry fields does not go wrong
Interlinear notes 1
今月六日有微雪。
On the sixth of this month there was a light snow.