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The Elders Answer the Prefect父老答太守

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 · 50 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 15 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.

太守猒五儕。意欲解腰章。吾州雖瘠薄。地勢龍軒昂。於兹剖符者。不月被徵黃。願公忍須臾。乍復舍甘棠。當有九天使。邀入紫微堂。

The prefect, grown weary of us, would loose the seal at his waist. Though our district is barren, the lay of the land is as though a dragon were soaring up. Those who have come here holding the divided tally have been summoned back before a month was out. We beg you, my lord, to bear with it a little while, and for a time let the shade of the sweet pear tree (甘棠) fall once more. Surely there will be a messenger of heaven to welcome you into the Jami Hall (紫微堂).