Colophon to O Deokjeon's Poem on Geogam (戟巖)吳德全戟巖詩跋尾
吳德全爲詩。遒邁勁俊。其詩之膾炙人口者。不爲不多。然未見能押強韻。儼若天成者。及於北山欲題戟巖。則使人占韻。其人故以險韻占之。先生題曰。北嶺巉巉石。邦人號戟巖。迥摏乘鶴晉。高刺上天咸。揉柄電爲火。洗鋒霜是監。何當作兵器。敗楚亦亡凡。其後有北朝使。能詩人也。聞此詩。再三歎美。問是人在否。令作何官。儻可見之耶。我國人茫然無以對。予聞之曰。何不道今方爲制誥學士之任耶。其昧權如此。可歎哉云。
When O Deokjeon made poems they were firm and striding, vigorous and outstanding. The poems of his that have gone round on men's lips are not few. But I had not seen him force a hard rhyme and yet make it grave and stately, as though Heaven had wrought it.
When he was about to write on Geogam at Buksan (北山), he had a man set the rhymes, and that man deliberately set hard ones. The master wrote thus:
The sheer rock of the northern ridge the people of this district call Geogam. Far off it would stab the man of Jin (晉) who rode the crane, and high up it pierces Xian (咸) above the sky. In working its haft, the lightning serves for fire; in washing its point, the frost serves for water. How might one forge it into a weapon to break Chu and bring Fan to nothing as well?
Later an envoy of the Northern Court (北朝) came, a man skilled in poetry. Hearing this poem, he sighed in admiration two or three times and thought it fine, and asked, 「Is this man alive? What office has he been given? Might I perhaps meet him?」 The men of our country were at a loss and had nothing to answer. When I heard of it I said, 「Why did you not say that he now holds the charge of an Academician of Royal Edicts (制誥)?」 Such was their dullness in meeting the moment; it is to be sighed over.