Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 7

The Double Ninth in the Gyeongja Year庚子重九

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 · 56 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 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.

無賓不飮心何怪。因病停歡意亦平。但愧黃花應笑我。此翁今歲大忘情。

With no guest I do not drink, yet why should my heart find it strange? Illness has stopped my pleasures, and my mind too is at ease. I am only ashamed that the chrysanthemums may laugh at me, saying this old man has this year quite forgotten all feeling.

久困沈痾今轉困。慣來親友又停來。多端使我妨行樂。黃菊休嗟未入杯。

Long worn by illness, I am worn now still more, and the friends who always came have also stopped their steps. All manner of things keep me from taking pleasure; chrysanthemums, do not lament that you cannot enter my cup.