Respectfully Replying to the Crown Prince's New Year's Day Poem — Praying for the Prince's Long Life奉和王太子元日令製 祝令壽
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 · 2 passages · 112 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 min
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.
Which spring is this at Ganghwa (江華)?
The spring wind has entered the Eastern Palace first, and all is new.
The palace cock has not yet sounded the tongue that announces the dawn,
yet the crane of the court has opened its beak first and prays for long life.
All this is owing to the people being at ease and the harmonious air being full,
so that without urging from house to house the sound of laughter is even.
Who is it before our eyes that makes plain the blessing of long life?
It is the four white-haired elders of Mount Shang (商山).
Spring is the spring that the Eastern Palace has of its own;
it is always spring there—why must it be newly welcomed in?
Auspicious clouds circle the windows and wrap the cock-head banners;
the wine that prays for long life fills the cup and wets phoenix-like lips.
Word of the flowers is passed in secret, and their fragrance begins to stir;
the cries of the birds have come in all together, and the warmth is even for the first time.
In days past I too was among the officers of your household,
and so the feeling with which I bow and offer congratulation runs ten thousand times deeper than another's.