Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 32

Letter of Congratulation Presented to the Marquis of Gwangneung at the Winter Solstice冬至賀狀 廣陵侯

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 · 74 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 32 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.

氣復黃宮。灰飛緹室。禮亞三元之會。樂宜五日之從。恭惟令公殿下。宗翰踈榮。天潢宅粹。筆下學鳳尾諾。率爾便工。箱中有蠅頭書。愛而自秘。適臨令旦。茂集純禧。伏念某等。限守棠陰。阻趨蘭阪。

The breath returns to the gung (宮) tone of the Yellow Bell (黃鍾), and the ash flies in the vermilion chamber. The rite stands next after the gathering of the first day of the first month, and the gladness might be stretched out over five days.

In reverence I consider that Your Highness, my Lord (令公), spreads forth glory from the trunk of the royal clan and holds purity from the clear pool of the royal house. Beneath Your brush You have practiced the phoenix-tail signature and are deft at a single stroke; and in Your chest there is a book in characters as small as flies' heads, which You cherish and keep hidden away. Meeting now a fair morning, pure blessings gather thickly.

Prostrate I consider that we, bound to the keeping of the wild pear tree's shade, cannot come forward to the orchid hill.