Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 7
A Warm Heated Floor暖堗
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.
冬月臥氷堗。寒威來刮骨。幸今燒柮榾。一束炎已發。氤氳氣如春。衾席稍可親。始可誇於人。眞箇宰官身。此身非固愛。此寒得可奈。至人無炎寒。而我安得配。
In winter, lying on a floor like a sheet of ice, the biting cold pares away the bones. Happily I now burn dry deadwood, and from a single bundle the heat already rises. The mild warmth is like spring, and the bedding too becomes a little approachable. Only then is it worth boasting of to others: truly this is a body befitting a Chancellor. It is not that I especially cherish this body, but what is to be done about this cold? They say the utmost man knows neither heat nor cold; how should I set myself beside that?