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 · 101 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.
On the twenty-seventh day of the fourth month I called the two Privy Councillors Pak, Vice Director Choe, and the three Academicians Pak, Jeong, and Yi. But Academician Yi, pleading illness, did not come, and sent a poem of thanks instead.
I at once followed his rhymes and sent back an answer, and I had all the guests who were present reply in verse as well.
At the first sitting with the guests facing me the talk was not yet loud
And I watched and waited for your noble carriage to reach the gate
Then all at once a letter came posting to say that your body was spent
And I wished to seek a physician in haste and look into the root of the illness
If a bad humor had arisen within your body
How could you gallop such bold words out from under your brush
Thinking it over, this is only a slight illness and no more
I shall wait for you to come and tilt a jar with me