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 · 70 Chinese characters · reading time 0.7 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.
A pair of swallows, flitting and flitting
Knowing that their old nest is there
Have diligently sought out my house and come
I shall meet them as old friends
Their sleek tails are still as they were
Their chattering tongues are unchanged
They dance and turn with the slender waist of the palace of Chu
So nimble, they are truly lovely
How many more years shall I be able to watch them
I am old, and fear I shall not see them twice
Interlinear notes 1
二首
Two poems
2Second Poem
頷似班將軍。腰如趙皇后。多渠尙微禽。眷眷不忘舊。
Their chins are like General Ban (班將軍)
Their waists like Empress Zhao (趙皇后)
Remarkable, that so small a bird
Should long for the old days and not forget them
Interlinear notes 2
General Ban is Ban Chao (班超) of the Later Han. His face was described as 「a swallow's chin and a tiger's neck.」 — Translator
Empress Zhao is Zhao Feiyan (趙飛燕), empress of Emperor Cheng of the Han. Her name holds the swallow in it, and she was famed for her slender waist. — Translator