Matching the Rhymes When Vice Minister Yi Sent a Reply次韻李侍郞見和
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 · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 min
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.
Of late you newly sent me eggs like jade,
and I am moved that even now you remember an old acquaintance.
This poem of mine is still worth your looking over and polishing;
your intent is to have the dust within me washed away.
You do not in the end cast off even this one stiff carcass;
your own body is worth a thousand in gold and weighs much, so take good care of it.
They say you are now ill, so your heart must be heavy;
who will be called in to show you the spring light of a smiling cheek?
Jade-like food stirred me and I newly wet my brush,
just as I was about to thank the old master of the Seon hall.
Instead I have got your poem, as though jade had been thrown to me,
and you congratulate me that the dust is at last gone from my cooking pot.
Your lines draw things well, and the more I look the more we are dear to each other;
the flavor makes me eat more rice, and being full is itself a treasure.
Having chewed both, my heart is of itself contented,
and still I wish we might tip a cup of spring wine together.
Interlinear notes 3
二首
Two poems.
曾得君所惠土卵。相與唱酬。此詩謝人所餉。而君亦預之。
Earlier I received the taro you sent and we exchanged poems. This poem thanks another man for what he sent, and you were included in it as well.
君亦被病。寓居禪師房。
You too have fallen ill and are staying in the Seon master's room.