Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 10

Matching the Rhymes of Vice Minister Yi Su's Long Palindrome Pieces次韻李侍郞需廻文長篇

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 · 76 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 10 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.

愚雖往往效廻文體。亦未喜酷嗜成癖者。蓋以傷其詩體耳。今君不循前誡。復以廻文長篇二首見示。初不欲和之。然所寄之意。亦豈無謂哉。想必要予賡和。故諒君之本意。敢成二首奉寄云。

Although I now and then imitate the palindrome form, I likewise do not care to delight in it until it becomes a habit. For the most part it harms the quality of poetry.

Now you have not followed the words of caution I offered earlier, and have again shown me two long palindrome pieces. At first I did not wish to answer them. Yet how should the intent of your sending them be without reason? I suppose you must have hoped that I would answer in turn. And so, weighing your true intent, I have ventured to compose two poems and send them to you with respect.

Interlinear notes 2

二首○幷序

Two poems. ○A preface is included.

吾前以詩。破酷好廻文意。

I had earlier, with a poem, broken the notion of taking excessive delight in palindrome verse.

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