Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 32
Letter Asking That You Cease Sending Thanks for Having Taken Food with Us at the Same Table請停謝合食狀
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.
食無五味之珍。深慙草草。書備八分之體。枉示謙謙。在禮已煩。自今勿復。
The food had none of the delicacies of the five flavors, and I am deeply ashamed of its roughness and neglect. Yet Your letter was set out in the bafen (八分) script, and in bending so far You showed Your modesty. By the rites it is vexation already; from now on, pray do so no more.