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

Memorial presented in the name of Lady Wang (王氏) thanking for a separate bestowal王氏行謝別宣表

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 · 103 Chinese characters · reading time 1.2 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。訓書疏爵。慶洽一門。宣醞霑恩。榮生四座。伏念妾素無婦德。枉配侯蕃。遽蒙曠世之異恩。誤及婦人之微品。對天子之使。旣受褒章。勞使臣之來。方張宴豆。繼頒飫賜。增侑嘉歡。眞千日之奇香。信九霞之濃液。酌言成禮。以樂嘉賓之心。感實由誠。請祝聖人之壽。云云。

And so forth. By a letter of instruction you have apportioned out a rank, and the happy event fills a whole lineage with gladness; by sending down wine you have steeped us in favour, and glory arises over the whole seated company.

Prostrate I consider that this handmaid is of herself without the virtue of a wife, and was wrongly matched into the house of a marquis. Suddenly I have received an extraordinary favour rare in the world, and it has wrongly reached the lowly rank of a wife.

Facing the envoy of the Son of Heaven, we had already received a writing of commendation; and to console the envoy for his coming, a banquet was just being spread. Thereupon you shared out an ample bestowal and heightened still more our fair delight.

Truly it is the strange fragrance that keeps one drunk a thousand days, and faithfully it is the thick liquor said to be drunk by the immortals. Pouring and drinking in turn we completed the rite and gladdened the hearts of our fair guests; and since our feeling rises indeed out of sincerity, we would pray for Your Majesty's ten thousand years. And so forth.

Interlinear notes 1

中謝。

Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.

‹ Report of Im (任氏) thanking for a gift of goodsContentsThe same memorial as the preceding, sent up in the name of the lady of the Im family ›Listen to this piece