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A Discussion of Li Shanfu's Poem李山甫詩議

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 · 172 Chinese characters · reading time 1.6 min

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.

詩話。又載李山甫覽漢史詩曰。王莽弄來曾半沒。曺公將去便平沈。予意謂之此佳句也。有高英秀者譏之曰。是破船詩也。予意以爲凡詩有言物之體者。有不言其體而直言其用者。山甫之寓意。殆必以漢爲之船。而直言其用曰。半沒平沈也。若其時山甫在而言曰。子以吾詩爲破船詩。然也。予以漢擬之船而言之也。而善乎子之能知也。則爲英秀者。其何辭以答之耶。詩話亦以英秀爲惡喙薄徒。則未必用其言也。但詩話不及是議。予所未知也。

The shihua also sets down a poem that Li Shanfu (李山甫) made upon reading the history of the Han, which runs: 「After Wang Mang (王莽) made sport of the state it was already half sunk / and when Lord Cao (曺公) took hold and went off with it, it settled level under the water.」 To my mind this is a fine couplet.

One Gao Yingxiu (高英秀) laughed at it and said, 「This is a poem about a broken boat.」 To my mind it is thus. In poems there is the speaking of the substance of a thing, and there is the speaking straight of its use without speaking of its substance. What Li Shanfu lodged his meaning in was, it may be, that he made the Han a boat and spoke straight of its use, saying that it was half sunk and had settled level under the water.

If Li Shanfu had been there at the time and had said, 「You call my poem a poem about a broken boat, and so it is. I spoke of the Han by likening it to a boat. You have been able to see it, and that is excellent」 — with what words would the one who was Gao Yingxiu have answered? The shihua too called Gao Yingxiu one of the foul-mouthed and frivolous sort, so his words are not necessarily to be taken up. Only, the shihua did not reach to this discussion, and that is what I cannot understand.

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