Memorial thanking for being given the post of Expectant Official of the Bomun Pavilion同前謝表
云云。職淸書閣。世號仙官。寵渥驟加。靑雲生地。光榮藉甚。白日昇天。伏念臣頑鄙寡能。孤寒無援。材不中榱椽之用。學未窺閫奧之深。幸際明時。獲從膴仕。八年翰苑。曾撫翼於鶴天。七載諫垣。濫棲身於鷄樹。顧乏詞臣之望。屢更儒者之榮。虛荷恩榮。訖微補益。豈意至明之鑒。復宣特異之褒。鞓帶映腰而儕輩改觀。黃裾引道而里閭聳覩。才躡亞卿之秩。已侔八座之儀。自怪何才。得參玆選。此蓋伏遇聖上陛下爲政若張琴之緩急。用人如制木之方圓。故收譾薄之資。兼畀殊尤之奬。臣敢不激昂素志。勉礪鈍鋒。老不廢其學焉。庶或裨於文德。臣所有者忠耳。以此報於聖恩。云云。
And so forth. The office is a pure place in the book pavilion (書閣), and the world calls it a post for immortals. A thick grace was suddenly added, so that blue clouds arise from the ground; and the shining glory is exceedingly abundant, so that one climbs to heaven in broad daylight.
Prostrate I consider that your servant is stubborn and base and of little talent, solitary and poor and with none to help him. As timber I do not suit even the use of a rafter, and in learning I have not so much as glimpsed the depths within the gate. Happily meeting an enlightened age, I have come to follow a thick office.
For eight years in the Hallim Academy I stroked my wings in the sky where cranes fly; for seven years in the place of a remonstrance official I presumptuously attached myself to the cassia tree. Looking back, I fall short of the repute of an official charged with writing, yet I have passed several times through a scholar's glory. In vain I have borne favour and glory, and there is nothing in which I have been of help.
How should I have thought that by your utterly enlightened discernment you would again send down an extraordinary commendation especially for me? A leather belt shines at my waist, and those of my own age change the way they look at me; a yellow skirt leads the way, and the people of the village gaze up. Barely have I trodden the grade of a Vice Minister (亞卿), and already I am as dignified as one of the Eight Seats (八座). I wonder to myself by what talent I came to share in this selection.
This is, in the main, that prostrate I have met with Your Sage Majesty's governing, which is like loosening and tightening the strings of a zither, and your use of men, which is like trimming timber square or round; and so you gathered up this shallow and thin stuff and gave it an extraordinary encouragement besides.
Shall your servant not dare to rouse up the purpose he held from the first and strive to whet a blunt blade, and, though old, not cast away that learning, hoping perhaps to be of help to the virtue of letters? What your servant has is loyalty alone, and with this he will repay your holy favour. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
中謝。
Here the words of thanks (中謝) are inserted.