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

Thanking Director Ha for Sending Ripe Persimmons謝河郞中送紅柹

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 · 3 passages · 60 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 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.

飽霜方爛熟。濡及病中唇。膚砑紅綃色。膏流赤玉津。

Soaked through with frost, they are just now ripened soft, and their juice wets even a sick man's lips. The skin is glossy, the color of red silk, and the rich liquid is as though the essence of red jade flowed.

Interlinear notes 1

千旦

His name is Cheondan (千旦).

始擬火龍卵。遲疑未遽呑。嘗焉百拜謝。大矣一飡恩。

At first I took them for the eggs of a fire-breathing dragon, and hesitating could not swallow them at once. Having tasted them I bowed a hundred times in thanks: how great is the kindness of one feeding!

邈寄江船到。赬飢爛尙全。略存凝濕氣。着手不跳圓。

What was sent far off by river boat, though the red flesh has softened, is still whole. A little of the clotted moisture remains, so that even at a touch of the hand they do not roll away.