Matching the Rhymes When Director Ha Replied Again and Came in Person to Give Them次韻河郞中復見和。親訪贈之。
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 1.3 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.
始嘗猶掛意。申喫已周唇。撫愛彤霞片。含疑絳雪津。
At the first taste it still caught at my mind,
but eating again and again I have already wet my lips all round.
I stroke and cherish a shred of red sunset glow,
and hold it in my mouth, doubting it is the essence of red snow.
甘宜稚子舌。丹稱美人唇。可笑霜鬚老。包羞好嚥津。
The sweetness suits a little child's tongue,
the red befits a beauty's lips.
How laughable, that an old man with a frost-like beard
braves his shame and gladly swallows the juice.
先供中饋費。當與上賓呑。而我何爲者。猶參再及恩。
They should first be offered for the household's use,
and properly given to honored guests to eat;
what sort of man am I,
that I intrude upon a kindness reaching me again and again?
賴君時見惠。隨分得頻呑。未暇謝夫子。何知亦聖恩。
Thanks to your giving from time to time,
I have come to eat often, as my lot allows.
I have not even leisure to thank you,
so how should I know it for the king's kindness besides?
Interlinear notes 1
君詩云。暫飡無賴菓。猶導亦皇恩。
In his poem he said, "Even eating a paltry fruit for a moment he still traces it back to the king's kindness."
遠信來千里。難乎一樣全。尙侔鷄子大。還倣氣毬圓。
Word from afar has come a thousand li,
so it is hard for all to be whole alike.
Still they may be matched against the size of a hen's egg,
and have rather taken the roundness of a ball for their model.
頃刻欲留賞。圖看箇箇全。舌先頻大嚼。忍作手中圓。
I meant to keep them even a little while and enjoy them,
and to look at each one whole.
But my tongue keeps biting great mouthfuls first,
so how could I bear to leave them round in my hand?