Memorial of congratulation on the sovereign's birthday賀聖節日表
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 · 91 Chinese characters · reading time 1 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.
And so forth. Great heaven sent down a sage, and now we meet the very day of his birth. All the earth comes as guest to the sovereign, and all advance into the ranks that hasten swiftly here.
Prostrate I consider that Your Sage Majesty is clear-sighted and examines antiquity, and that the reckoning of heaven resides in your person. Embracing the Dipper and matching the tally, you became in full majesty the master of the four quarters; and a flowing rainbow wrote down the morning, so that you received besides the auspice of ten thousand years.
We, your servants so-and-so, monks of the gate (沙門), have attached our traces to Jogye (曹溪) while our hearts hang at the palace. We cannot join the files of those who dance and leap like beasts, and merely pour out a sincerity like a terrapin clapping its hands. Your servants cannot contain their hearts as they look up to heaven and offer congratulation to Your Majesty, and so forth.