Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Latter Collection, Book 11
Preface to a Critical Discussion of Calligraphy — Yu Sin (柳伸)東國諸賢書訣評論序 柳伸
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 11 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.
軒乎悍蛇之昂首。嚴乎長戟之森張。何怒兮惟拳是揮。何戰兮惟力斯揚。鋒鑽稜生。純是鐵鋼。其人漸遠。其書益翔。
For towering, it is as a fierce snake lifting its head for sternness, as long spears ranged close together At what is he angry, that he does nothing but swing his fists with what does he fight, that he does nothing but put forth his strength? The brush-tip bores through and the corners stand out it is all iron and steel The man himself grows ever more distant yet his writing soars the higher