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

Replying Again with Two Quatrains又和二絶

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 · 40 Chinese characters · reading time 0.4 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

方君訪吾時。吾亦隨君到。猶有故吾存。何必別相造。

When you came looking for me, I too arrived following after you. The old self of mine still remains, so why must another be made besides?

Interlinear notes 1

此其時重乞寫眞詩也。

This is the poem written at that time when I asked again for the portrait.

2Second Poem

一生榮辱身。半幅綃中到。知君豈天工。此像逡巡造。

A body that has passed through a lifetime of glory and disgrace has arrived within half a sheet of silk. I know now — how could you not be of heaven's own skill, having made this figure in a moment's space?