Report thanking for leave to go down from the mountain謝下山狀
云云。下情自迫。敢以實陳。上命曰兪。俯從誠請。慞惶拜命。欣悚交懷。伏念某釋苑殘僧。先朝舊物。勢若已陳之芻狗。狀如弄罷之木翁。昔叨聖考之尊崇。訖無片效。更沐皇朝之容許。枉費厚恩。久玷名藍。得存餘喘。林泉幽勝而最宜棲息。薪水贍足而不至乏窮。自惟耄矣之軀。合作終焉之地。若循成例。當課限期。其在老髡之尫羸。曷隨常調而轉徙。玆披衷懇。仰冒嚴威。豈圖詔綍之丁寧。許釋名韁之拘迫。祗膺慰藉。彌極銘藏。老境心安。苟得容身之所。餘生日用。無非祝壽之場。云云。
And so forth. The heart below being of itself urgent, I dared to report the matter as it stood; and the command above said "Let it be so," bending down to follow my earnest request. Trembling in dread I bow to receive the command, and joy and fear cross one another in my breast.
Prostrate I consider that so-and-so is a worn-out monk of the cloister and a stale thing of the former court. In condition he is already like a straw dog that has been used in sacrifice; in shape, like a wooden puppet whose play is done. In old days he presumptuously received the honour the late king gave him, yet there was not a fragment of merit in it; and again, bathing in the forbearance of the present court, he has spent a thick favour to no purpose. Long defiling a famous monastery, he has preserved what breath is left him.
The grove and the spring are secluded and fine, most fit for nesting and dwelling in, and firewood and water are ample and do not come to lack. Considering my own aged body, this is a land I may make my end in. Were I to follow the fixed observance, I ought to be moved on at a set term; but as an old and wasted monk, how should I go on shifting from seat to seat in turn as in ordinary times? Thus I unfolded the earnestness of my inward heart and looked up and braved your stern majesty.
How should I have reckoned that the words of the rescript would be so earnest as to loose me from the halter of a name? Reverently bearing your consolation, I keep it graven on my heart all the more utterly. In my old estate my mind is at ease and I have truly found a place to put this body; so that of the days of life left me there is none that is not a place for praying for your years. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
依所住下山
The monastery where he had been staying was itself made the place he went down to dwell in.