A Letter in My Own Hand Written from the Army in Reply to the Retired Scholar An Chimin (安置民)軍中答安處士置民手書
月日。某啓。僕自在京師。聞處士之名滋久。路隔千里。無由相覿。第深傾渴而已。及去歲十一月。被征東之命。從軍非佳事。以得見處士爲幸。知會面有日。但此都亂熾。未的識好在。以此爲慮耳。及入都。急欲邀見。緣軍門壯鑰謹。誰何甚厲。且處士亦此都人。若與相見。恐軍中有疑者。故未敢爾。昨於幕中簽判朴郞中所寓。値處士方與朴公話。僕素未識面。觀其鬚髮皓然。著緇衣峙緇冠。如世所畫道客居士者。卽自認之。不問名諱。促膝接話。若舊日飽相與遊者。因得略詳其一二。其後於蒲池寺。與朴公相際。特邀致處士。因置酒從容。各賦詩數篇而去。僕以兩日之覿。頗慰昔年積戀之懷。方欲致書。敍所以深仰敬伏之意。尙稽延未先。忽蒙今月某日首辱書敎累幅。辭語高爽。飄飄有凌雲之氣。予然後知眞箇有仙風道韻。嘆伏絶倒。較疇昔加深。而感荷亦爾。但書中以僕比李太白。太白。天人也。其語皆天仙之詞。僕雖耗竭精思。百日百夜。方得一詩。猶不略侔謫仙昏醉中造次所占一語也。處士其不欲假僕以須臾之喘息耶。何簸以大語。將飄去吾平生幺麽不盈眥之福歟。僕之向之比處士以文洋州龐居士者。蓋墨竹絶似與可。參禪得妙如龐薀。故指的實而言耳。非出於媚諛者。處士尙遜避不敢當之。況僕之於太白。邈若霄壤相懸。而處士況之大過。若將誑戲者。愚心不能無小望。兼所曉捕賊事。尋已藏心。予豈輕洩哉。處士有婦與兒。得無慮日支否。幸有私蓄。以長腰若干斗餉之。雖小尙堪延一日。幸納毋拒。朴簽判約與予同遊佛國寺。處士亦相從否。此境多江山佳處。又賊兵小弭。當與處七野服遊歷。時或賦詠。稍遣鬱懷耳。軍中有所厚某甲者。聞予與處士遊。將絹素求墨竹甚勤。爲我一掃可乎。餘留面剖。不宣再拜。
On a certain day of a certain month, so-and-so declares.
It is long since I first heard your name, sir, while I was still in the capital. The road being blocked by a thousand li, there was no way for us to see each other, and I only longed for you deeply and thirsted. In the eleventh month of last year I received the order for the eastern campaign. To follow the army is no good thing, but I counted it fortunate that I should be able to see you, and knew that there would come a day when we should be face to face. Only, this district being thick with disorder, I could not learn for certain whether you were safe, and this troubled me.
When I entered the district I wished to receive you at once, but the bolts of the army gate were firm and watchful and the challenging of who goes there was very strict. And since you too are a man of this district, I did not dare to do it, thinking that if we met there might be those in the army who would suspect.
Yesterday, at the lodging of Director Pak, the assistant judge of the camp, I happened upon you in talk with Lord Pak. I did not know your face from before; but seeing that your beard and hair were white and that you wore black clothes and a tall black cap, like the Daoist guests and lay adepts whom the world paints, I knew you at once of myself. Without asking your name I sat knee to knee and talked with you, and it was as with one with whom I had long had my fill of company; and so I came to know roughly one or two things of you. Afterward, meeting Lord Pak at Poji Temple (蒲池寺), we had you especially brought to us and quietly set out wine, and we parted after each had composed a few poems.
By seeing you for two days I was much comforted for the longing heaped up over many years. I meant now to send a letter and set forth my deep reverence and my bowing to you, but I put it off and did not do it first. And then suddenly, on a certain day of this month, you bestowed upon me first a letter of several sheets. The words were lofty and clear and had a spirit that soars over the clouds. Only then did I know that there is truly a wind of the immortals and a ringing of the Way in you, and I marveled till I could have fallen over; and compared with former days it has deepened, and my gratitude is so likewise.
Only, within the letter you compared me to Li Taibai (李太白). Taibai was a man of heaven, and his words are all the words of a heavenly immortal. Though I pour out my whole spirit and get one poem in a hundred days and a hundred nights, it cannot roughly match even one line that the banished immortal threw off in the midst of deep drunkenness. Would you not lend me even a moment's breathing space, sir? Why do you winnow me with such great words and seek to blow away the petty fortune of my lifetime, which does not even fill the eye?
That I earlier compared you to Wenyangzhou (文洋州) and the Lay Adept Pang (龐居士) was because your bamboo painted in ink is very like Yuke's (與可) and your probing of Seon and getting at its subtlety is like Pang Yun's (龐蘊); I was only pointing at the fact, and it did not come of flattery. And even so you still declined and avoided it and did not dare accept it. How much more, when I and Taibai are as far apart as heaven and earth; and your comparison is so excessive that it is as if you were deceiving me and making sport of me, so that my foolish heart cannot but have a little resentment.
The matter of catching the brigands, of which you also told me, I have at once hidden in my heart; how should I let it leak out lightly? You have a wife and children, sir; must there not be trouble in holding out day by day? Happily I have a little laid by of my own, and I send you a few pecks of good rice. Little as it is, it is still enough to add a day, so pray receive it and do not refuse it.
Assistant Judge Pak has promised to go sightseeing with me at Bulguk Temple (佛國寺); will you come along too? In this district there are many fine places of river and hill, and besides, the brigand troops have subsided a little. I wish to roam about with you in countryman's clothes and chant poems at times and so loosen a little of this stifled heart.
There is a certain man in the army whom I hold dear, and hearing that I keep company with you he has taken white silk and asks most diligently for bamboo painted in ink. Would you paint one for my sake? The rest I leave to be unfolded when we meet. Here I stop and bow twice.