Memorial of thanks for the same matter同前謝表
云云。棘圍考藝。宜推博大之儒。楓禁疏恩。誤及庸虛之品。靡容遜讓。徒極感藏。伏念臣識謝辨鼮。才慙吐鳳。幸遘風雲之嘉會。得依日月之末光。驟沐寵靈。屢遷華要。玉堂承乏。叨參內相之名。藥省崇資。猥備諍臣之數。奬褒優縟。識量迂疏。力雖策於疲駑。萬無一補。學亦幾於荒廢。十有九忘。披卷得詳。掩篇則失。每躐文章之任。不堪俯仰之慙。豈意至仁。曲收舊物。忽降絲綸於宸極。俾司旗鼓於文場。汗渙難廻。強顔自處。典選是書生之宿志。拜命爲吾黨之榮觀。此蓋我聖上陛下。護短取長。匿瑕藏醜。謂儻有露塵之效。故委以衡石之權。臣謹當仗旁燭之皇明。礪下愚之天性。利其斤斧。苟有得於良材。備以棟欀。庶助成於大廈。云云。
And so forth. The examining of talent in the thorn-hedged examination ground ought to put forward a broad and great scholar, yet grace was spread from the palace and came wrongly upon one mean and empty. There being no room to decline, I can only store this feeling up in my breast.
Prostrate, I consider that in knowledge your servant falls short of Dou You (竇攸), who told apart the name of a rat, and in talent is put to shame beside him who spat forth phoenixes. Happily I met the fair meeting of wind and cloud and could lean upon the last light of the sun and moon. Suddenly bathed in favor, I was moved again and again to brilliant and essential posts. Filling a vacancy in the Hallim Academy, I presumed to be counted in the name of Academician of the Hallim Academy; and with a high rank of the Chancellery, I presumed to fill out the number of remonstrating officials.
Your praise and shelter are ample and thick, while your servant's knowledge and measure are clumsy and thin. Though my strength is as the whipping of a tired, dull horse, it adds not one part in ten thousand; and my learning too is well-nigh abandoned, nine parts in ten forgotten. Opening a book I know it in detail, yet closing the book I lose it. Again and again I have leapt over others to hold the posts charged with letters, and I cannot bear the shame of looking down and looking up.
How could I have thought that one of utmost benevolence would look down and gather up an old servant, and suddenly send down a rescript from the palace entrusting him with the banner and drum of the field of letters? A command once sent down is hard to turn back, and so with a thick face I place myself here. To be charged with the choosing of men is the long-held wish of one who follows letters, and to receive the command is a glorious sight for our company.
This is because Our Majesty the Holy Sovereign shelters what is short and takes what is long, hides flaws and covers what is ugly, and, holding that there might yet appear some merit the size of a mote of dust, has therefore entrusted to me the authority of the weighing-stone.
Your servant will reverently lean upon the sovereign's brightness that shines on every side, and will grind down the inborn nature of one utterly foolish. If, sharpening my axe, I truly obtain good timber, I would help, with pillars and beams made ready, to complete the great hall. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
玉堂 · 內相 · 藥省 — 玉堂 is a byname for the Hallim Academy (翰林院), 內相 another name for Academician of the Hallim Academy (翰林學士), and 藥省 a byname for the Chancellery (門下省). — Translator