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

Statement of thanks for the things bestowed謝物狀

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 · 46 Chinese characters · reading time 0.5 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。華衮示褒。旣加優禮。漏泉垂澤。復辱多儀。前件物等。製作精奇。名般繁浩。奉翫忽驚於溢目。感銘有至於淪肌。云云。

And so forth. Showing me praise bright as the dragon robe, you had already added an ample rite; and letting down your favor like a spring that seeps and flows, you have bestowed besides many gifts, which fills me with awe. The things written above are fine and rare in their making, and many and wide in their names and kinds. Bearing them up and looking at them, they overflow the eye and startle me all at once, and the feeling of it is engraved until it soaks into my skin.