Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 7
The Chief Minister Having Replied, I Match the Rhymes Again and Respectfully Answer相國見和。復次韻奉答。
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 7 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.
我家曾不種花奇。何日移栽到錦披。處士休誇鸚鵡賦。相君今詠鳳凰枝。絳葩紅蕊遙猶見。尖觜豐膺捻始知。不有嘉賓留逸唱。人間那有此花詞。
In my house no strange flower was ever planted before; on what day was it moved here, to become like brocade spread open? Let the recluse not boast of his “Rhapsody on the Parrot”; His Excellency has now sung of the phoenix branch. The crimson petals and red stamens can be seen even from afar, but the pointed beak and the swelling breast are known only when touched. Had my fair guest not left behind so excellent a song, how would the world of men have a song for this flower?
Interlinear notes 1
詞有鳳凰枝。又命家有鳳凰支。
That piece has in it the words “branch of the phoenix.” He also called that house “the house with the phoenix branch.”