Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 9
Chanting on the Spring Snow I Got Two Quatrains詠春雪得二絶
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 9 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.
似怯陽和落細微。我言何必怯春爲。春光尙早花開晚。未害將花補此時。
As though afraid of the breath of spring, it flies scattered and fine; but I say, what is there to be afraid of in spring? The light of spring is still early, and the flowers bloom late, so there is no harm if it fills this season in the flowers' stead.
梅發遲遲已罪春。喜渠先放玉花新。梅花開後方交代。莫遣園英有曠辰。
That the plum is slow, so slow to bloom, is already spring's own fault. I am glad that the snow has burst open its new jade blossoms first. Only after the plum has bloomed should it yield up its place, so that the garden may be left no season empty of flowers.