Matching the Rhymes of the Poems Director Ha Sent in Reply, Answering with Two Poems to Each次韻河郞中見和。各成二首答之。
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 · 6 passages · 120 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 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.
詩以洗塵眼。菓能滋燥唇。通仙應有分。丹露吸津津。
The poems wash my dust-filmed eyes,
and the fruit wets my dry lips.
As though I had the lot to commune with immortals,
I suck in the red dew with relish.
畏脫難傾手。留甘惜度唇。嚼終偏自喜。添得玉池津。
Fearing to spill, I can hardly tilt my hand;
grudging the sweetness, I am loath to let it past my lips.
Having chewed it all, I am oddly glad alone,
for sweet saliva has gathered the more in my mouth.
試知親友重。豁與老夫呑。一箇那輕散。分甘尙感恩。
Now I know how thick a friend's feeling is:
you readily gave them to an old man to eat.
Even one of them, how should it be lightly scattered?
That you shared the sweet at all moves me to gratitude.
衆傾稱曰德。餉集得頻呑。子以人心致。予慙與沐恩。
Many incline their hearts to you and call it virtue,
and what was sent has gathered so that I eat often.
You accomplished it with a human heart,
while I am ashamed to be steeped in that kindness.
高樹非難撼。深嫌落破全。想應猿掛臂。隨摘袖藏圓。
It is not that shaking a tall tree is hard,
but you must have greatly feared that the whole ones would fall and break.
I imagine you hooked your arms like a monkey,
and as you picked, hid the round things in your sleeve.
新從霜樹摘。深襲始能全。展轉聊來我。宜哉物也圓。
Freshly picked from the frost-struck tree,
only after being wrapped layer on layer could they stay whole.
They rolled this way and that and came to me;
how fitting it is that this thing is round.