Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 9
The Next Day, Sitting Alone, I Write Down What Is in My Heart明日獨坐書懷
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.
昨晨送阿兒。今日無來客。空房坐蕭然。有酒誰與酌。咄咄是浮生。未死飜自責。此時若有人。令我解嚬額。一笑足銷憂。絲竹非所憶。
Yesterday morning I sent my child away, and today there is not even a guest who comes to call. I sit forlorn in an empty room, and though there is wine, with whom am I to drink it? Alas, this is a floating life, and unable even to die, I reproach myself instead. If at such a time there were someone who would smooth out this furrowed brow of mine, a single laugh would be enough to melt my cares; the zither and the pipe do not even come to mind.