A Letter Sent to the Seon Elder Myoeom (妙嚴禪老)寄妙嚴禪老手書
月日某啓。僕於世被狂名久矣。獨尹司業不以狂人待之。空門獨丈下亦爾。每相見輒欣待。不欲輕別。僕亦非不照此心。以俗緣深重。猶不得日與丈下相從。能不泚顙。但心交中有不能無小望者。丈下欲取僕詩文。憑宋歸舶。流播中國。此非厚予。而祇以揚其醜也。僕僅類中國之解書走卒耳。華人見吾詩。必曰。如是而已耶。三韓詩人。非止此耳。此獨來華。必其國之鉅者。鉅者尙爾。餘可知也。苟如是云云。則適彰國之短耳。請勿復及。但慮丈下齒臘甚少。不幸嬰沈痾。顔日以益瘦。雖道境不以生死介意。僕是世情。不能無恐。惟冀爲法自愛。勉加藥石。以副予輩與宗門祝禱之懇。餘留面剖。不宣。某再拜。
On a certain day of a certain month, so-and-so declares. It is long since I came to bear in the world the name of a madman. Only Yun, the Director of Studies (司業), did not treat me as a madman; and in the Buddha's gate it was you alone, Your Reverence, who did likewise. At every meeting you received me gladly and would not part from me lightly.
Nor is it that I fail to see and know this heart of yours. Yet my worldly ties being deep and heavy, I cannot keep company with Your Reverence and follow you day by day; how should my brow not break into sweat?
Only, within our friendship of the heart there is a thing about which I cannot but have a small wish. Your Reverence means to take my poems and writings and put them aboard a ship returning to Song and so spread them abroad in China. This is not a thick treatment of me; it is only the showing forth of what is ugly in me.
I am no more than a runner who barely knows the characters of China. If the men of China see my poems they will surely say this: "Is it no more than this? The poets of the Three Han cannot stop here. Since these writings alone have come to China, this must be a great man of that country. If their great man is still like this, the rest may be guessed." If they truly speak so, then this is only the showing forth of our country's deficiency. I beg you never to raise this matter again.
What I fear, only, is that Your Reverence is very few in years and in seasons under the robe, and yet has unhappily fallen into a grave illness, and that your face grows thinner day by day. Though in the realm of the Way you will not hang life and death upon your heart, I, with my worldly feeling, cannot but be afraid.
I only pray that for the sake of the Law you will cherish yourself and strive to take more medicine, and so answer to the earnest heart with which we and the school pray and hope. The rest I shall say when I see you. Here I leave off. So-and-so bows twice.