Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 9
On the Eighth Day of the Third Month, Getting Greatly Drunk with My Kinsman Vice Director Chae and Singing三月八日與族人蔡郞中大醉歌唱
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.
如予病眼者。閉目臥如何。迺反與吾子。大醉放長歌。更益眩雙目。掩亂見玄花。飮酒若不已。是必病所加。知之竟未斷。雖病又何嗟。
A man whose eyes ail him as mine do ought to be lying down with his eyes shut, yet instead, together with you, I got greatly drunk and loosed a long song. My two eyes are more confused than ever, and I see black flowers flickering before them. If I do not leave off drinking, this must surely make the ailment worse. I know it, yet in the end I cannot give it up, so if I fall ill, what is there to lament besides?