Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 9

On a Day in the Fourth Month I Hear the Oriole四月日聞鸎

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 · 1 passages · 60 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.

中土導鸎春。鸎必當春出。我邦以孟夏。目之爲鸎月。豈以地性殊。其來迺不一。遲早更何問。入耳聲不拂。時時到樹頭。好哢歌喉滑。鳥中聲最佳。稍豁中心鬱。

In the Central Land they say that spring leads out the oriole And that the oriole must come forth in spring In our country it is the first month of summer That is given the name of the oriole's month Is it that the nature of the ground differs So that the time of its coming is not the same Why ask again whether it is early or late Enough if the sound that enters the ear does not jar From time to time it comes to the treetop And chirps prettily, its singing throat smooth Among birds its voice is the fairest And it opens a little the stifling in my breast