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Report of thanks submitted by His Excellency (令公) to the Crown Prince令公謝東宮牋

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 · 147 Chinese characters · reading time 1.7 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 30 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.

云云。命出九重。爵崇五等。循涯有溢。靦面何施。伏念某學謝成麟。智昏秤象。偶緣天幸。濫叨肺腑之親。猶有童心。罔意脤膰之禮。夫何豐眷。特出常鈞。導宣汪濊之恩。俾受厖鴻之冊。此蓋伏遇王太子殿下。溫姿玉裕。茂德川沖。羽翼已成。雖同鴻鵠之絶海。首尾相應。尙念鶺鴒之在原。至使連枝。與蒙優澤。某謹當能順而悌。終和且平。承覆萼之華。不惟韡韡。託庇根之葛。其求綿綿。云云。

And so forth. The command came out of the ninefold palace, and the office is high among the five degrees. Measured along the brim of my portion there is an overflowing; where shall I put this shamed face?

Prostrate, I consider that So-and-so's learning does not reach him who completed the unicorn, and his wits are darker than his who weighed the elephant. By chance, leaning upon heaven's good fortune, I presumed to obtain the closeness of kinship; yet a child's heart still remains in me, and I never so much as thought of the rite of sharing out the sacrificial meat.

How then does your thick regard go especially beyond the ordinary, drawing out and unfolding a broad and deep grace and letting me receive a great and mighty patent of investiture?

This is because, prostrate, I have met with His Highness the Crown Prince, whose warm aspect is ample as jade and whose luxuriant virtue is deep as a stream, who, his plumes and wings already grown so that he is as the wild goose and the swan crossing the sea, yet, as head and tail answer each other, still thinks upon the wagtail out in the field, and lets even the branches joined to him be visited together with his ample favor.

So-and-so will reverently be yielding and respectful and bring it in the end to harmony and evenness. Bearing up the corolla that the calyx covers, it is not brightness alone; and entrusting myself to the kudzu vine that covers the roots, I seek that its continuance be unbroken.

Interlinear notes 2

中謝。

Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.

成麟 — the 秤象 that follows is the matter of Cao Chong (曹沖), who weighed an elephant; but whether 成麟 is the capture of the unicorn (獲麟) in the Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋) or some other matter has not been confirmed. — Translator

‹ Memorial of thanks from the Princess for the bounty bestowed when the sovereign came forth to the hall Contents Memorial of thanks from His Excellency (令公) for the flowers and wine bestowed when the sovereign came forth to the hall ›Listen to this piece