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

Letter of Congratulation Presented to Administrator of Chancellery Affairs (平章事) Lord Gi (奇公) at the New Year正旦賀狀 奇平章

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 · 78 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.

靑籥朝吹。驗人正之首啓。朱門曉闢。想賀客之肩摩。恭惟令公閣下。文虎兼姿。安危攸繫。春波正暖。亮宜浴鳳於荀池。陽氣方和。何必問牛於邴路。須迎朔統。滋集乾休。某等。限身繫於魚符。莫躬趨於龍阪。

The green pipe is blown in the morning, and we have proof that the first month of man has newly opened; the vermilion gate opens at dawn, and we think of the congratulating guests brushing shoulder against shoulder.

In reverence I consider that Your Excellency, my Lord (令公), joins in Yourself the gifts of letters and of arms, and that the safety or the peril of the state hangs upon You. The waves of spring are at their warmest, and are fit indeed for bathing phoenixes in the pool of the Xun (荀) house; the yang breath is just now harmonious, and why should You need, as Bing Ji (丙吉) did, to ask about an ox upon the road? Meeting now the first day of the month, the blessing heaven sends down gathers the more.

We, our persons bound to the fish tally (魚符), cannot come in person to the dragon hill.