Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 32
Letter of Comfort and Inquiry on the Day the Envoys Congratulating the Imperial Birthday Entered the Guest Lodge賀聖節日使到館日勞問狀
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.
塗路險艱。實勞跋涉。館居湫隘。未合燕閑。仰冀精調。以符勤竚。謹修狀諮問。伏惟炤察。
The road was steep and hard, and You have truly toiled in crossing mountains and fording streams. The guest lodge is low and cramped and is not fit for Your comfortable rest. Looking up to You, I beg that You take good care of Yourself and so answer to our earnest waiting. Reverently I have composed this letter to inquire of You; prostrate I beg that You look upon it.
Interlinear notes 1
以下北朝客使迎接修製翰林行與寮員分作。故數目不具。
From here on, these were composed on the occasion of receiving envoys of the Northern Court. Because they were written in the Hallim Academy divided among colleagues, the set is not complete.