Presented to Choe, Minister of State上崔相國
1Preface
某本乏吏能。出爲郡守。政猶未滿。汲汲然求見代者。似爲大早。然僕居省五年。忽因非罪。被有司所彈。賴閣下盡力營救。然後不落散地。受此方州之任矣。幸今閣下當國。凡內外官寮之名不廉者。旣盡懲之矣。夫淸者濁之對。激其濁則必有揚淸之議。如吾礪節奉公者。雖未蒙大賞。亦何必三年而後見代耶。伏惟諒之。
I have by nature little of the talent needed for office, and yet I went out and became a district governor. My term of rule is not yet full, and to be pressing so urgently for someone to take my place seems much too early. Still, after I had been five years in the Secretariat (省) I was suddenly impeached by the authorities (有司) for something that was no crime of mine, and it was because Your Excellency did all in your power to rescue me that I did not fall into an idle post but received this charge of a provincial district. Happily now that Your Excellency has charge of the state, you have already punished every official, within the court and without, who had gotten a name for not being incorrupt. Now clearness is the counterpart of muddiness; if the muddiness is stirred up, there will surely be talk of bringing the clearness to light. For one like me, who whets his integrity and serves the public business, even if I may not receive a great reward, why must I wait until three years are full before I am replaced? I humbly beg you to consider it.
Interlinear notes 1
幷序○晉康公嗣也。
With a preface. He was the son of Duke Jingang (晉康公).
早沐深恩入鳳池。忽因橫議落江陲。謫因非罪公曾識。力欲扶顚世亦知。蓬艾蒙籠同鹿處。園墻踈漏任狼窺。訟庭愁見飢民色。公席慵看黠吏姿。邑俸近從删省少。田租未免負駄移。尙難周補經年粒。况可能營禦臘絲。舊踏藥階天忽遠。與遊䔵友驥難追。苦遭簿領長纏縛。無奈詩情大減衰。參秩五年仍六品。殘鄕一日敵三期。鈞軒若採氷淸節。瓜代何須要及期。
Early on I was bathed in deep favor and entered the Phoenix Pool (鳳池), then suddenly, through idle talk, fell away to the riverside. That my banishment came of no crime, you knew long ago, and that you labored to hold me up as I toppled, the world too knows. The mugwort grows rank, and I keep company with the deer; the garden wall is thin and gapped, and I leave the wolf to peer in. In the court of lawsuits it grieves me to see the look on starving faces; at the seat of business I am too listless to watch the ways of crafty clerks. The district's salary has of late been pared and cut down, and the field tax cannot escape being carried off on men's backs. It is hard even to supply grain enough to see the year out — how much more to provide the thread against the cold of the twelfth month. The medicine steps I once trod are suddenly far off as the sky, and the friends I roamed with, fragrant as angelica, are swift horses hard to follow. Bound forever and painfully to documents and registers, what can I do about the great falling off and decay of poetic feeling? Five years in the ranks and still of the sixth grade, and in this worn-out countryside one day is the match of three years. If Your Lordship will but take up my integrity, clear as ice, why must my replacement wait for the term to be full?
Interlinear notes 1
明年以起居注見召。
The next year he was summoned to be Court Diarist (起居注).