Second memorial on the same matter二度同前表
云云。犬馬之齒。已合歸休。螻蟻之誠。莫廻聰聽。敢堅鄙守。再瀆嚴威。伏念臣性若方輪而動昧推移。材如散樗而不中制度。旣乏濟時之用。又無博古之能。幸遭罕遇之辰。驟沐不貲之寵。侍中。一品之官也。臣已冒顔而處。冢宰。百寮之長也。臣不量力而居。地極台衡。權兼風憲。受爵則若盡登階級。論功則猶蔑有毫毛。自惟曠職之多。宜早奉身而退。然頃者邊陲未靜。家國多艱。雖至草萊屛迹之人。罔懷寢席沾身之望。況爲國相。遽陳引避之辭。誰謂愚臣不作自全之計。故難高謝。甘受衆譏。曁臨解綬之年。加有負薪之疾。若又不退。其復何須。承聖訓之悉纖。厚臣心之愧恧。矧于謹孔光。皆古之名臣也。雖引以爲證。臣所不敢當也。伏望聖上陛下。諒至誠之請。廓大度之寬。特降允兪。俾從閑適。則殘骸養氣。仗聖德以不僵。餘喘偸生。祝皇齡之曷旣。云云。
And so forth. My years, as of a dog or a horse, are already fit for going home to rest, yet with the sincerity of a mole cricket or an ant I have not turned your hearing toward me. I dare to make firm my worthless holding-fast, and again sully your stern majesty.
Prostrate, I consider that your servant's nature is like a squared wheel, dark as to shifting when it moves, and his timber like the useless ailanthus, not answering to the measuring line. I have neither the usefulness that would save the times nor the ability of knowing the old matters widely.
Happily I met a time such as is rarely met with, and was suddenly visited with favor beyond measuring. Chancellor is an office of the first rank, and your servant has already brazened his face and sat in it; Chief Steward is the elder of all officials, and your servant took no reckoning of his strength and sat there. My place has come to the utmost of a minister, and my authority holds besides the business of the censorate. By the offices I have received it is as though I had climbed the whole stair; but if merit be reckoned, there is not a hair's worth.
Thinking it over for myself, I have left my charge empty in much, and ought to have gathered myself up and withdrawn early. Yet of late the frontier was not quiet and the state had many troubles, so that even one who had hidden his traces in the grasses could not harbor the wish to lay his body at ease upon his mat. How much more, had I, being a minister of the state, suddenly set forth words of withdrawing out of the way — who would not have said that your foolish servant was contriving to keep his own body whole? Therefore, hard put to decline from on high, I took the blame of the many with a good grace.
Having reached the years for loosing the seal-cord, and with an illness besides as of one carrying firewood on his back, if I still do not withdraw, what more am I to wait for? Receiving a holy instruction so detailed and minute, the shame in your servant's heart only grows thicker. How much more when Yu Jin (于謹) and Kong Guang (孔光) were both famed ministers of old: though you drew them in as evidence, they are not what your servant dares bear comparison with.
Prostrate I hope that Your Majesty the Holy Sovereign will weigh a request of the utmost sincerity and widen the generosity of his great measure, and will send down consent especially, letting me live at leisure. If you do so, what is left of my body will nourish its vigor and, leaning upon your holy virtue, will not fall; and with the breath that remains I shall eke out my life and pray that the sovereign's span be without end.
Interlinear notes 1
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.