Yi Gyubo 李奎報

early 13th century

My little girl's face was white as snow, and how bright she was I cannot fully tell. At two she could already speak, rounder-tongued than a parrot. At three she seemed shy of strangers and never played beyond the gate. This year she had just turned four and was learning quite well to sew. Why were you snatched away and taken back, gone as suddenly as startled lightning?

小女面如雪 聦慧難具說 二齡已能言 圓於鸚鵡舌 三歲似恥人 遊不越門闑 今年方四齡 頗能學組綴 胡爲遭奪歸 倏若駭電滅

Dongguk Yi Sangguk jip, "Mourning My Little Daughter"

Open this post

early 13th century

I had not faced a mirror in so long that I could not remember whose face mine was. Happening to look into a well just now, I thought: he seems someone I once knew slightly.

不對靑銅久 吾顏莫記誰 偶來方炤井 似昔稍相知

Dongguk Yi Sangguk jip, "Looking into a Well, Written in Jest"

Open this post

13th century

A mountain monk coveted the moonlight and drew it up with the water into his jar. When he reaches the temple he will find out: tip the jar, and the moon is gone as well.

山僧貪月色 幷汲一甁中 到寺方應覺 甁傾月亦空

Dongguk Yi Sangguk jip, "On the Moon in the Well, a Mountain Evening," second poem

Open this post

13th century

The people of the world have all forgotten me. Within the four seas, this one body is alone. And not only the world: my brothers have forgotten me too. Today my wife forgets me, tomorrow I shall forget myself. After that, between heaven and earth, there will be neither near nor far at all.

世人皆忘我 四海一身孤 豈唯世忘我 兄弟亦忘予 今日婦忘我 明日吾忘吾 却後天地內 了無親與踈

Dongguk Yi Sangguk jip, "On Forgetting"

Open this post

earlier 13th century · Sambaek, "three hundred," was his son's childhood name

Your milk teeth are still in and already you tip the cup; I fear your guts will rot before long. Do not take after your father, forever falling down drunk; all his life people have called him mad. Everything that went wrong in my life was drink, and now you like it too. What is to be done? I am sorry I ever named you Sambaek, Three Hundred: I am afraid you will tip three hundred cups a day.

汝今乳齒已傾觴 心恐年來必腐腸 莫學乃翁長醉倒 一生人導太顚狂 一世誤身全是酒 汝今好飮又何哉 命名三百吾方悔 恐爾日傾三百杯

Dongguk Yi Sangguk jip, "My Son Sambaek Drinks Wine"

Open this post