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Text Written at the Head of the Scroll of a Portrait of Bodhidharma書達摩畫像㡠額文

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 · 111 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 12 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.

夫祖駕西來。心燈東燭。則凡求心者。孰於祖師。有不痛仰痛慕者耶。有山人某者。高達磨之風。夙夜慕其道想其像。倩人畫尊像。其志願亦不煩。而求予爲文。略書㡠上。予怪其最略。佯謂之曰。亦作贊系其後可乎。曰。美則美矣。緣㡠地窄。但欲誌其端由耳。予幸其至簡。遂從其志。粗書大槩耳。

Now when the patriarch came from the west, the lamp of the mind lit the east. And so, among all who seek the mind, who does not look up to the patriarch with yearning and long for him with yearning?

There was a certain man dwelling in the mountains who held the bearing of Bodhidharma (達磨) in high regard, and day and night longed for his Way and yearned after his likeness, until he borrowed a man's hand to paint the venerable image. His intent and vow in this were likewise not troublesome. Then he asked me to compose a text and write it briefly at the top of the scroll.

I thought it strange that it should be so brief, and said, as if idly, "Would it not be well to compose an encomium (贊) too, and hang it after?"

He said, "Fine it would be, fine indeed; but because the space on the scroll is narrow, I wish only to set down the occasion of it."

I counted its extreme brevity a piece of good fortune, and so, following his wish, merely set down the outline of it roughly.

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