Dispatch in Reply to Marshal Ageo (兒巨), as Above同前答兒巨元帥狀
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 1 passages · 110 Chinese characters · reading time 1 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 28 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.
And so forth. Set off as I am in a corner by the sea, it is long since I heard of your lofty righteousness, and night and day I could do no more than look up to it.
Respectfully receiving the instruction written in your own hand, I have learned in full that your esteemed person is at ease and in every happiness, and I cannot contain my joy. Ah, I did not know that you would humble yourself so far as to stoop to ask after me more warmly than my own kin. It is not what my station can bear.
Further, the feeling of close affection knows no distance between far and near. Reckoning from this heart of mine, which clings to you in longing, I know that Your Excellency likewise does not forget me. I beg only that you care for yourself, keep that person of yours worth a thousand pieces of gold in health, and look after this small country all the more. My dread is beyond measure.