Matching the Rhymes of Jeong, Librarian-Director, Who Replied Once More with Two Poems Thanking Me for the Almanac and the Citrons次韻丁秘監復和謝曆柑二詩
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.
Like a rolling wheel the sun and moon go on without rest,
and again we come to green spring, when the air springs to life.
I still shrink from the gaunt face in the mirror —
how can I bear to see the sixty cycles so clear upon the paper?
In the new year the white-haired man is just as he was,
yet from last year's old roots all things sprout once more.
The season grows better and better, and I have grown old:
sealing up the almanac to send you, my heart is hurt once.
The golden globes are just the right size to hold in the palm,
soothing a hungry mouth and standing in even for something to drink.
Fond of what had come from a thousand li away,
I happened to seal up a few fragrant ones and send them off.
I leave the guests outside to chew them, mouths watering,
and rejoice at the sound of tasting in the inner rooms, calling the mouth refreshed.
How can such a worthless thing be called fit to send?
To pour it out together with fragrant wine is the better way.
Interlinear notes 3
右曆
The above is about the almanac.
來詩云。已與病妻同嚼破。更思佳客喚來嘗。
In the poem he sent he said, "I have already chewed them with my ailing wife, and think now of calling in a good guest to taste them too."