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

Matching the Rhymes of Academician Yi, Who Sent Me His Poems Replying to and Thanking Jeong, Librarian-Director, for the Ink Bamboo and the Portrait — The Ink Bamboo次韻李學士和謝丁秘監墨竹影子詩見寄 墨竹

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 · 170 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.

世或畫竹君。或與與可亞。自從丁君生。其筆久已捨。假若較相看。夷豈混諸夏。不忍汚我眼。淸淨蒲萄朶。丁公爲我掃。與子方閱過。一閱便成詩。此竹又增價。兩公誤才吾。大手不辭寫。我本浮虛人。暫作前糠簸。釣得由佯賢。果於我計墮。不然將我材。安得此雄跨。時來天亦憐。亦得被人可。至寶得分外。世人應怪我。秘藏勿輕出。人情多巧詐。君詩播於世。爛若耀丹赭。丁筆若示人。豪奪又誑借。奈知二君名。足流千載下。草木同腐朽。孰有如予者。

Here and there in the world those who paint bamboo are sometimes called second to Yuke (與可). But ever since Master Jeong was born those brushes have long been cast aside. If one were to set them side by side, how could barbarians mix with the Middle Plain? I cannot bear to let them soil my eyes, clear and clean as grapevine shoots. Lord Jeong swept them out for me, and you were just then looking them over with me. At one glance you made a poem, and this bamboo rose again in worth. The two lords mistook me for a man of talent and did not refuse to paint with their great skill. I am by nature a frivolous, hollow man, like chaff that has for a moment been winnowed up to the front. What I hooked and got came of feigning worth, and so indeed the two lords fell into my scheme. Otherwise, with timber such as mine, how should they straddle so grandly as this? My time came and Heaven took pity on me, and I got others to call it right as well. Having received a supreme treasure beyond my lot, the people of the world must think me strange. Keep them hidden and do not bring them out lightly, for in the hearts of men there is much clever deceit. If your poem spreads through the world, it will shine resplendent as a glow of red. If Lord Jeong's brushwork is shown to others, they will seize it by force or borrow it by trickery. What is to be done, when the names of you two are ample to flow on for a thousand years? As for one who will rot away together with the grass and trees — who else is there but me?

‹ Matching the Rhymes of Academician Yi, Who Sent Me His Poems Replying to and Thanking Jeong, Librarian-Director, for the Ink Bamboo and the Portrait — The PortraitContentsOn the Fifth Day of the First Month, Thanking Yi, Director of the Chancellery, for Calling on Me ›Listen to this piece