A Letter in My Own Hand in Reply to My Two Friends Jeon and Pak, Who Had Sent Greetings from the Capital答全朴兩友生自京師致問手書
某啓。蒙千里致問。驚奉手敎。備認兩君雅履動止佳勝。感慰交極。官軍。今月某日。離東京入雲門山屯住。草賊亦小弭。軍中無餘事。但掘松下新菌。煨火中喫啖。甚佳。僕本書生。不閑弓馬。偶爲驅逼。以怯膽從軍。初甚股戰。漸習軍旅間其所謂彎弓走馬。近亦稍稍。若用此播士林。必供一場大笑。但楯上草檄。緣煎爍矢石中。眊眊然不若平昔酣醉時下筆迅速。然亦不至遲鈍。粗免長官訶詰耳。有的便更通家信。甚幸。廻使忙遽。不得悉意。惟冀萬萬各自愛。惶恐頓首。
So-and-so declares.
You have sent me greetings from a thousand li away, and in surprise I received your letter in your own hands. I have learned in full that your going and your doing are well with you both, and my gratitude and my comfort are together at the utmost.
The royal troops left the Eastern Capital (東京) on a certain day of this month and have come into Unmunsan (雲門山) and camped and are quartered here. The brigands of the countryside have subsided a little, and there is nothing else afoot in the army. Only, we dig the new mushrooms under the pines and bury them in the fire and roast them and eat them, and it is very good.
I am a man of letters from the first and am not practiced in bow and horse. Having happened to be driven to it, I followed the army with a timid liver, and at first my legs trembled badly. Among the troops I have gradually learned what they call drawing the bow and galloping the horse, and of late it is coming a little. If this were spread abroad among the scholars it would surely make one great round of laughter.
Only, the drafting of proclamations upon a shield is done in the midst of arrows and stones roasting us, so that my eyes grow dim, and it is less than my old swift lowering of the brush when I was merrily drunk. Yet neither has it come to slowness and dullness, and I roughly escape my superiors' reproaches.
If you have a suitable messenger, it would be most fortunate if you would send me news of my house again. The messenger who returns is in haste and I cannot say all I mean. I only pray that each of you will cherish your body, pray, pray. In fear I bow my head.
Interlinear notes 1
東京 — This is Gyeongju (慶州) of the Goryeo period. — Translator