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

Heavy Snow on the Third of the Eleventh Month十一月三日大雪

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 · 60 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.

節已侵大雪。此雪未云劇。初雪已如此。何憂不三白。夜深睡正甘。不見飛花色。洒窓猶未聞。開戶方驚積。遙知紫宸朝。舞賀朱袂赩。如予老退者。宜以手自拍。

The season has already entered Major Snow, so this snow is nothing to call severe. The first snow is already like this, so why worry about the three snows that announce a good harvest? The night grew deep and my sleep was at its sweetest, so I did not see the brightness flying like petals. Nor did I hear the sound striking the window, and only on opening the door was I startled by what had piled up. I guess from afar that at the court audience in the palace red sleeves will be dancing in congratulation. One like me, old and withdrawn, may properly do no more than clap his hands.

Interlinear notes 1

已侵入大雪節

The season of Major Snow had already come.