Memorial of Lord Geum (琴公), Director of the Palace Library, giving thanks for the foregoing office同前謝表
云云。命出中宸。選高內相。榮生望表。喜溢情涯。伏念臣器局庸虛。性資朴直。文非華國。僅同童子之篆雕。用不適時。徒守古人之糟粕。偶緣科第。早躡班聯。自神考之膺圖。屢蒙器使。及陛下之嗣統。益荷甄昇。顧惟俗學之短才。多歷儒林之淸貫。芸臺承乏。已慙王象之才。蓬觀備員。又愧董狐之筆。復兼叨於三字。皆大過於一生。尙懼多言。未遑啓處。豈意璿霄之眷命。更加玉署之榮資。恩以幸加。淚因感墮。此蓋伏遇聖上陛下。臨政願理。用人取長。兼收膚受之儒。特霈膏霑之渥。臣敢不激昂夙志。澡雪昏襟。理舊業之榛荒。造次必是。守孤忠之矢直。夷險不渝。臣無任云云。
And so forth. The command came forth from the very middle of the palace, and the selection was for the high seat of Academician of the Hallim. The glory has arisen beyond what I hoped, and gladness overflows my breast.
Prostrate, I consider that your servant is mean and empty as a vessel, and plain and straight in nature. My writing is nothing to give lustre to the state and is barely like children's carving of insect-shaped characters; my usefulness does not suit the times, and I merely keep the dregs of the ancients.
By chance, by way of the examinations, I trod early upon the ranks of office. Ever since the late king succeeded to the royal enterprise I have several times been employed as suited my vessel, and when Your Majesty succeeded to the great line I received the more your selecting and raising me.
Looking back, with the short talent of a vulgar learning I have passed through many a pure seat among the company of scholars. Filling a vacancy in the Palace Library, I am ashamed already that I do not come up to the talent of Wang Sang (王象); making up the number in the Historiographical Office, I am ashamed besides before the brush of Dong Ho (董狐). Again I presumptuously hold jointly an office of three characters, and all of it greatly exceeds a whole lifetime. Still I fear much talk, and have no leisure to sit or stand.
How should I have thought that by a jade-like heaven's command of regard you would add again the glorious seat of the Hallim Academy? The kindness is added through luck, and my tears fall through gratitude.
This is, in sum, because Your Sage Majesty, taking up government, hopes for good order, and in employing men takes their strong points; because you gather in even a scholar who has got no more than the outside, and have especially poured down upon me the thickness of a rich soaking.
How should your servant dare not rouse up his former intent and wash out his darkened breast; not clear the coarse thicket of his old studies and strive at this even in a moment's space; not keep the arrow-straightness of his lone loyalty, unchanging whether the way be level or hard? Your servant cannot contain, and so forth.
Interlinear notes 3
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.
選云未學膚受。
In the Wenxuan (文選) it reads "has not yet learned, and has got no more than the outside."
芸臺 · 蓬觀 · 玉署 · 內相 — these are, in order, the sobriquets of the Palace Library (秘書省), the Historiographical Office (史館) and the Hallim Academy (翰林院); 內相 is another name for an Academician of the Hallim (翰林學士). — Translator