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

Matching the Rhymes of Academician Yi's Poem Sent in Further Reply on the Rhyme-Word 'nong' (籠)次韻李學士再和籠字韻詩見寄

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 · 167 Chinese characters · reading time 1.8 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

如吾數百腹皆容。夫物誰非氣所籠。夙賦天機元廓湛。近探聖海轉圓融。古人陳迹遺蒭狗。往日浮榮笑木翁。方且抱神游白素。何從得句賁鉛紅。妄緣雖落心虛外。妙語多生道熟中。二老往來眞箇樂。何須避世必墻東。

Several hundred men like me would all fit inside your belly and of all the ten thousand things, which is not wrapped in the vital breath? The heavenly frame you were born with was broad and clear from the first and lately, groping through the sea of the sages, it opens wider still The stale traces of the ancients you leave aside like a dog plaited of straw and the floating glory of bygone days is laughable as a wooden puppet Now, holding your spirit, you roam upon the white ground where would you get verses to adorn it with powder and rouge? Empty ties have indeed fallen outside your empty mind yet subtle words come forth in plenty from within a ripened Way It is a true pleasure that two old men go back and forth why must one hide east of the wall to flee the world?

Interlinear notes 1

邇來好尙內典。

He has lately taken pleasure in reading Buddhist scriptures.

2Second Poem

趨世吾何取苟容。鳩鴞必不得於籠。感公獨許心相炤。攝我同歸道大融。呼作謫仙因賀老。晚爲居士學龐翁。盃觴未放斟𨤍淥。囊槖從敎倒粟紅。期費未曾行券外。是非今已泯環中。昔年顚倒方將息。無復西之誤向東。

Following the world, why should I grasp at being grudgingly taken in? Even dove and owl are not at ease inside a cage in the end You alone shine your heart on me and grant me this, for which I thank you and leading me to go back with you, the Way opens wide To be called a banished immortal was the affair of old He (賀知章) and to become a layman in old age is to learn from old Pang (龐居士) Unable to set down the cup, I pour the clear wine and let the sack spill the grain that has aged and reddened What was set down for use has never gone outside the document and right and wrong have now vanished in the middle of the ring The overturnings of bygone days I would now let rest and never again shall I mistake east for the west I meant to go

Interlinear notes 1

予自號白雲居士。

I called myself the White Cloud Layman (白雲居士).

‹ Matching the Rhymes of a Poem Sent in Reply by Yi, My Examination ClassmateContentsOn the Nineteenth of the Tenth Month, Visiting Ssangam Temple, I Left an Inscription to Show the Old Host, the Monk Won ›Listen to this piece