Academician Yi Built a New Ondol Room and on the Ninth of the Tenth Month Gathered the Elders of the Valley for a Housewarming; I Too Went and Joined. When the Wine Had Gone to My Head I Made a Poem on the Spot and Presented It to the Guests Seated There李學士新作溫房。十月九日。會洞中諸老落成。予亦參赴。及酒酣。於席上賦詩一首。兼呈坐客。
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 · 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.
Shut behind my gate, I had no place to pass the time at ease
and suddenly called, I am like a bird come out of its cage
Being of one mind with you, my gladness is ample too
and all whom I see are old acquaintances, so the pleasure grows thicker still
Who would have known that one idle, scattered, madcap guest
would come to face nine towering elders?
My lungs are dry, so the strong wine makes me drunker
and though my eyes are dim, I still pour them on the red skirts
Heaven and earth all enter into the sound of chanting
and sun and moon run their course in the midst of vain drunkenness
How should I know that this gathering is rather like a dream?
The swift light of my remaining years is like water flowing east
Interlinear notes 1
坐客無一人非舊者。
Among the guests seated there was not one who was not an old acquaintance.