Miscellaneous Words Addressed to Myself自貽雜言
紫陌醉遊渾似夢。靑山歸計亦違心。誰敎俯首就銜勒。簿領堆高力不任。
My drunken roaming on the purple streets is all like a dream, and my plan of going back to the green hills runs against my heart as well. Who has made me bow my head and come to the bit and bridle? The ledgers are piled high and my strength will not bear it.
Interlinear notes 1
八首
Eight poems.
大守抱痾長在假。貳車多懶亦稀衙。唯同一箇栖栖椽。敲榜中間費歲華。
The Prefect hugs his illness and is forever on leave; the Vice Commissioner is much given to sloth and is seldom at the office either. Only one single clerk, scurrying about, keeps me company, and between the floggings the splendour of the years is spent.
黑石川邊堪避暑。開元樓上可吟詩。只緣官事來侵軼。十日猶難倒一巵。
By Heukseok Stream (黑石川) one might escape the heat, and upstairs in Gaewon Pavilion (開元樓) one might chant poems. Only because the business of the office comes and encroaches, in ten days it is hard even to tip a single cup.
理無善狀皆推去。政謝前賢孰借留。昨日今朝連罰妓。但言書記勿風流。
In governing I have left no good traces, so I push it all away; my rule falls short of the worthies before me — who would hold me here? Yesterday and this morning I punished the singing girls one after another, and they only say the Recorder must have no part in elegance.
紅旗如火馬如虬。獵得南山白額侯。莫道書生無膽氣。鋸牙刀齒落吾謀。
The red banners are like fire and the horses like coiling dragons, and we hunted and took the white-browed lord of the southern hill. Say not that a scholar has no gall in him: the saw-like fangs and knife-like teeth fell to my devising.
Interlinear notes 1
聞有南山大虎。頻出害人。予率軍擒之。
I heard that there was a great tiger on the southern hill which often came out and harmed people, and so I led out soldiers and took it.
化邑由來貴淸淨。故看吾祖五千文。一篇讀了心虛寂。反欲休官入白雲。
To make a town civil has from of old held purity and stillness dear, and so I look into my ancestor's five thousand words. Having read one chapter through, my heart is empty and quiet, and I would rather leave office and go into the white clouds.
身非羅刹與閻王。日閱纍囚謾斷膓。笙笛慣聞猶或厭。況聽楚毒可無傷。
My body is no rakshasa, nor am I the King of the Dead, yet day after day I look over the bound prisoners and uselessly break my heart. Even reed organ and flute, heard often, come to weary a man; how then should one hear the sound of the scourging and not be hurt?
道直無人不作讎。初心不意數旬留。今年又見秋强半。笑我翻成繞指柔。
Where the Way is straight, there is no man who does not become an enemy; at first I never thought to stay for several months. This year again I see the autumn more than half gone, and laugh at myself, who have turned into the softness that winds round a finger.