Letter Condoling the Passing of the Emperor While the Envoy of Felicitation for the Festival Day Was upon the Road賀節日使行次。吊皇帝升遐。
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 · 60 Chinese characters · reading time 0.6 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.
Since we parted, meeting face to face at the border, the sending of a letter has been late indeed. Prostrate I hear that the Late Emperor (大行皇帝) has of a sudden forsaken all beneath heaven, and I am startled and grieved, cast down and not knowing what to do. Only, since Vice Minister Cha (侍郞) has already left the guest house and set out upon the road, I cannot condole in person, and do but shed tears and mourn bitterly. In all reverence I have prepared this letter and inquire of You; prostrate I beg that You will look upon it.
Interlinear notes 2
此狀當誥院述之。上命小臣立進呈。
This writing ought properly to have been composed at the Edict Academy (誥院), but the king commanded this humble servant to compose it where he stood and submit it.
「Vice Minister Cha」 is given in the source text as 天車侍郞. 天 has been taken as a word pointing to an envoy of the Son of Heaven, and so it is read as a Vice Minister whose surname was Cha (車). Read as 「Vice Minister Cheongeo」 it would collide in sound with cheongeo (薦擧), recommendation. ― Translator