Matching the Rhymes of Academician Yi, Who Used Lord Jeong's Rhymes to Thank Me Likewise for the Winter-Solstice Almanac and the Citrons次韻李學士用丁公韻。亦謝冬至曆柑子。
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 · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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.
The four seasons pass of themselves in order, like the scales of a fish;
who does not know of storing away in winter and opening out in spring?
One can indeed reckon it by counting off five fingers,
yet turning the nine sheets of paper — how brightly clear it is!
Only the cup of pepper-flower wine (椒花酒) at New Year's is in haste;
do not ask about the winter grasses rising in the first warm light.
My words praying for your long life came first with the almanac I offered,
and to keep that promise year after year is my heart's wish.
I hide my light and avoid being met wherever I go —
why is it that people still send me something to drink?
I too sent only a few citrons,
out of fondness for the lingering fragrance that had crossed the sea.
Far off I thought the children would vie to be first to pick them up;
how could I have known that even you would taste them?
Unlooked for, you came yourself with a poem in your sleeve to thank me —
how much finer that in taking people in you keep to no fixed measure.