Memorial of the six officials charged with writing within the palace, thanking for a bestowal禁內文儒六官謝宣賜表
臣某等言。臣等伏覩聖上陛下駕幸晉康侯茅亭御製之聖什。謹依天韻。各和成二首奉呈宸陛。伏蒙宣賜酒果者。鼓缶俚音。仰繼熏風之曲。出綸明命。遽推湑露之恩。傴僂拜嘉。凌兢失措。恭惟聖上陛下。文思天縱。制作日新。當國家閑暇之時。樂天地淸和之節。擁紫霄之仙仗。將幸離宮。駐丹蹕於侯藩。賜同曲宴。龍顔溢喜。鳳藻摛華。繫六義之根源。掩三辰之文彩。刻成玉字。堪方禹穴之書。流入鳳簫。當配舜庭之樂。伏念臣等恪居禁署。聳覩宸章。自忘缺爾之才。敢續煥乎之作。日月出矣。雖慙不息之微光。乾坤廓然。曲示有容之大度。仍加異奬。繼以珍頒。味兼風莆之嘉羞。酒實霞觴之滋液。顧惟何幸。忽被玆榮。飽已至於屬猒。飮亦周於旣醉。感恩涕下。拜北闕於九天。祝壽情深。指南山之萬歲。云云。
We, your servants so-and-so, report. Your servants prostrate beheld the holy poem that Your Sage Majesty made with your own hand when you went to the thatched pavilion of the Marquis of Jingang (晉康侯); reverently following its rhymes we each completed two answering poems and bore them up to the palace, whereupon we prostrate received a bestowal of wine and fruit. With the vulgar sound of beating an earthen jar we did but look up and carry on the tune of the warm wind, yet your bright words came down and you suddenly granted us the favour of being steeped in dew. Bending our waists we bow to receive this beauty, and tremble, not knowing what to do.
Reverently we consider that Your Sage Majesty's gift and thought in writing are sent down from heaven, so that what you compose is new day by day. Meeting a time when the state was at leisure and delighting in a season when heaven and earth were clear and bright, you led out an escort like immortals of the purple sky and were about to go to a detached palace, when you halted the vermilion carriage at the house of a marquis and granted that we share in the banquet.
Joy overflowed upon the dragon countenance, and writing like a phoenix spread out its flowering. It is rooted in the six senses of poetry and covers over the brilliance of sun and moon and stars. Carved and completed in characters like jade, it may be matched with the writing that came out of Emperor Yu's (禹) cave; flowing into the phoenix flute, it may be paired with the music of Emperor Shun's court.
Prostrate we consider that your servants, reverently serving in the offices of the palace, looked up and beheld the royal writing. Forgetting our own want of talent, we dared to compose in continuation of that shining work. Since sun and moon hang in the sky, we are ashamed of our small unquenched light; yet because heaven and earth are wide, you bent down and showed us the great measure that takes all in.
Thereupon you added an extraordinary encouragement and one after another shared out precious things. The flavours comprehend the fair foods of pungpo (風莆), and the wine is the liquor held in a cup of sunset cloud. Looking back, by what good fortune have we suddenly received this glory? Our fullness has already reached the point of surfeit, and our drinking too went round until we were drunk.
Moved by your favour our tears come down as we bow toward the northern palace of the ninefold heaven, and our feeling in praying for your years is deep as we point to the ten thousand years of the South Mountain. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 2
在翰林作
Composed while serving in the Hallim Academy (翰林院).
風莆 — a comparison paired with 霞觴 in the following clause, but no source for it has been confirmed. The characters are kept as they stand so that the clause is not lost. — Translator