Matching the Rhymes of Yi the Joint Manager (平章) on the Eight Views of Ganzhou (虔州)次韻李平章虔州八景詩
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 · 1 passages · 96 Chinese characters · reading time 1 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 6 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.
His Excellency the Chief Minister graciously showed me the poems he had written in reply to the Eight Views of Ganzhou composed by a retainer of the Duke of Jinyang (晉陽公), and asked me, 「Have you ever written on these Eight Views?」 I replied, 「From of old down to now many poets have sung of them, and there is not one who has not striven to make an outstanding line, as though holding up thunder or splitting the moon. Fearing that I could not come up to them, I have not dared to write.」
Since His Excellency pressed me hard to write, I at once matched his rhymes, composing two poems on each, and respectfully send them. Only, I have not seen what the many worthies composed, so how am I to know that I have not trespassed on their rhymes? That alone is what I fear.