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Sent to Academician Pak寄朴學士

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 · 175 Chinese characters · reading time 1.7 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.

1Preface

予以病目失看花。昨方作詩有嘆。今月二十五日。學士於新亭。欲邀諸公賞百葉桃花。亦親來邀予。予以左目患未赴。然不能忘情。因得詩寄呈左右。蓋不欲虛負此會耳。

I lost the flower-viewing through an ailment in my eyes, and only yesterday I made a poem and sighed over it. On the twenty-fifth of this month the Academician meant to gather several gentlemen at his new pavilion to view the hundred-petaled peach blossoms, and he came in person to invite me as well.

Because of the ailment in my left eye I could not go; yet I could not forget my feeling for it, and so I have made a poem and send it up to you. It is that I did not wish to fail this gathering for nothing.

Interlinear notes 1

仁著○幷序

His name was Injeo (仁著).○Including the preface.

俄聞緋杏開。又報紅桃綻。何況君侯家。百葉最堪翫。邀之未敢赴。豈以目爲患。不知誰作讎。妨我看花眼。遙想新亭中。坐客文彩煥。輭斟霞液醇。快賞霞葩爛。必定有倡姬。亦豈無簫管。悵望費翹頸。世情猶未斷。非爲要飮酒。我病眞可嘆。亦恨被嘉招。未參深愧赧。病復尙可趨。其奈花飄散。

Hardly had I heard that the red apricot flowers had opened When word came that the red peach blossoms too had burst How much more at your house Where they say the double blossoms are best worth seeing Though you invited me I dared not go How should I not be troubled over my eyes I do not know who it is that has turned my enemy And blocked these eyes of mine from seeing flowers Thinking of it from afar, within the new pavilion The letters of the seated guests will shine bright Softly they will pour the thick wine like sunset glow And coolly enjoy the flowers like sunset glow in their riot There will surely be singing girls And how should there be no flute and no pipe I gaze that way in sadness and stretch out my neck I have not yet cut off my feeling for the world It is not that I want to drink the wine It is only that my sickness is truly to be lamented And this too I lament — that having had a fair summons I could not join it, and in deep shame my face goes red The sickness, even so, I could brave and go But the flowers scatter and fall — what is to be done

‹ Matching the Rhymes of the Poem Academician Pak Sent in ReplyContentsAiling in the Eyes, I Could Not See the Flowers, and Sigh ›Listen to this piece