On the Eighth of the Tenth Month I Roamed to Gyeongboksa, and the Next Day Visited the Birae Abbot's Hall and for the First Time Paid Homage to the True Likeness of the Holy Man Bodeok — Following the Rhymes of the Poem Written by Head Seat Jongnyeong and Academician Yi Illo, I Wrote at the End十月八日。遊景福寺。明日訪飛來方丈。始謁普德聖人眞容。板上有宗聆首座李內翰仁老所題詩。堂頭老宿乞詩。依韻書于末云。
忽憶山中胡眼碧。暫輟簿書硏墨赤。身先飛鳥躍半空。臂共騰猿攀絶壁。幅巾長嘯到寺門。又與蝙蝠爭黃昏。天明扣鍵飛來堂。至人已化雲無痕。吾聞普德信至人。一臥盤龍幾許春。嗒然隱几如喪耦。唯與十一門人親。至人變化眞有餘。擬將一室飛空虛。自言吾生信過客。視世尙欲如蘧廬。此地何須着我房。達人知幾猶履霜。却遣椽椽生羽翮。過眼難容掣電光。若顯神通百千種。刺地出泉如決腫。明德胡爲恨未移。聖人有時藏妙用。聊向人間示有礙。細思此理眞自在。莫言只是十六楹。大曰須彌堪納芥。吾師何年栖此山。一笑萬古彈指間。我來記舊吟索句。博得雙鬢添詩斑。
Suddenly I thought of the blue eyes in the mountains, and for a while left off the ledgers and ground the red ink. My body leapt into mid-air ahead of the flying birds, and my arms, with the climbing apes, gripped the sheer cliff. In my cloth cap, whistling long, I came to the temple gate, and there contended with the bats for the dusk. When day broke I knocked at the bar of Biraedang, but the utmost man was already gone, with no trace, like a cloud. I have heard that Bodeok was truly an utmost man: how many springs was that one lying down of his on Mount Banryong (盤龍山)? Blankly he leaned on his armrest, as though he had lost his mate, and was close only to his eleven disciples. The transformations of the utmost man were truly ample: he meant to fly a single room off into the empty air. He said of himself, "My life is truly that of a passing traveler; I would rather look upon the world as an inn." Why should my room be fastened to this ground? The man of insight knows the first signs and treads the frost early. Instead he made feathers sprout on every rafter, and its passing before the eye was too swift for even lightning to hold. If his divine powers were shown in a hundred thousand kinds, then piercing the ground to draw out a spring would be like lancing a boil. Why then did Myeongdeok (明德) regret what could not be moved? The holy man at times hides his subtle uses. He only showed that in the human world there are hindrances; think this principle over closely, and he is truly free. Do not say it is only sixteen pillars: even Mount Sumeru, called vast, can be held in a mustard seed. In what year did our master come to roost on this mountain? He laughs once, and ten thousand ages are the space of a finger-snap. I came to set down the old story and went hunting for lines, and on both my temples gained more of the poet's gray.
Interlinear notes 4
初居高句麗盤龍山延福寺。
At first he lived at Yeonboksa on Mount Banryong in Goguryeo.
初有十弟子。後得明德爲十一。
At first his disciples were ten; later he gained Myeongdeok (明德) and they became eleven.
普德謂弟子明德曰。高句麗唯尊道敎。不信佛法。不久滅亡。安身避難。有何處所。弟子曰。新羅完山有高達山。安住不動之處。普德聽之。勤修過夜。至曉開戶出見。堂卽移在高達山。
Bodeok said to his disciple Myeongdeok, "Goguryeo honors only the Daoist teaching and does not believe in the Buddha's law; before long it will perish. Where is there a place to rest the body and escape the troubles?" His disciple said, "At Wansan in Silla there is Mount Godal (高達山), a place to stay at ease and not be moved." Bodeok heard this and practiced diligently; he passed the night, and at dawn opened the door and went out to find that the house had already been moved to Mount Godal.
明德曰。此山雖奇絶。泉水枯渴。我若知師移來。則必幷移舊山之泉矣。
Myeongdeok said, "Though this mountain is strange and outstanding, its spring water has dried up. Had I known the master would move here, I would surely have moved the spring of the old mountain along with it."