Report of thanks submitted by the Earl of Hawon (河源伯) to the Crown Prince河源伯謝東宮牋
某言。伏蒙令慈以今月二十五日許令某尙壽寧宮主者。北闕疏恩。特備嗣親之禮。東宮推惠。克成歸妹之儀。拜命之嘉。撫躬以愧。伏念某性惟輶蔽。身本菜孱。早蒙裂土之封。久玷鈕金之列。㳙埃無效。尙慙國廩之糜。雲日連光。況望天姻之託。豈意仁心之下眷。導令婌媛以降嬪。榮靄里閭。慶均宗戚。彌劇銘肌之感。敢言炙足之辭。此蓋伏遇王太子殿下德茂元良。情深敦穆。俯記賤微之品。孤若舞鸞。許諧嬿婉之求。和如鳴鳳。某敢不溫恭蹈禮。謙儉束心。仰承貳極之尊。常罄千齡之祝。云云。
So-and-so speaks. By your benevolent charge, prostrate I have been visited with your consenting, on the twenty-fifth day of this month, that So-and-so should take to wife the Princess of the Sunyeong Palace (壽寧宮主).
From the northern palace you unfolded your grace and furnished especially the rite of kin who carry on the line; and from the Eastern Palace you extended your grace and completed the ceremony of giving a sister in marriage. Fair it is to receive the command, yet stroking my own body I am ashamed.
Prostrate, I consider that So-and-so is light and veiled in nature and frail of body from the first. Early I was visited with an enfeoffment that set apart land for me, and long I have sullied the rank of those who wear a golden seal. Having no merit the size of a drop of water or a mote of dust, I am ashamed even so to be eating into the state's granaries; how then, as cloud and sun pass on their light, should I have hoped to be joined to a marriage of heaven?
How could I have thought that your benevolent heart would regard what is below and lead out a fair daughter and give her in marriage? Glory hangs over my village, and blessing falls evenly upon my kin. The feeling that engraves itself on my skin grows the keener; how should I dare to set forth words about warming the feet?
This is because, prostrate, I have met with His Highness the Crown Prince, whose virtue as heir apparent is luxuriant and whose affection is deep in thickness and concord, who bent down and remembered a body lowly and mean, lonely as a dancing simurgh, and who, consenting to my seeking of one fine and lovely, has made our harmony as of phoenixes calling.
How should So-and-so dare not tread the rites in gentleness and respect, and bind his heart in humility and frugality? Looking up and bearing up the loftiness of the second seat, I shall always give my whole heart to praying for a thousand years for you.
Interlinear notes 1
伯再娵故云。
The Earl was marrying for the second time, and so it is put thus.