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 · 100 Chinese characters · reading time 1 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.
In former days I was a mere scholar in hemp clothes,
and riding on circumstance became Chancellor of the state.
The Chancellor too has grown old and withdrawn,
so why should I again wear a Chancellor's look?
Whether I hire out my labor or do odd jobs,
others need not find it strange.
How much more the doings within this single room,
which I can set out for myself.
Hugging the brazier I add charcoal with my own hand,
and if there is wine I warm it myself.
When the fire is burning at its height,
I do not shrink even from roasting chestnuts.
Having already resolved to be an ordinary man,
do not look on me as a Chancellor.
How laughable, that this one body
has changed so many times in a little while.
Rising and falling, filling and emptying,
the way of heaven loves to come and go.
If I should rise to heaven and return there again,
I shall be a companion of the immortals once more.