Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 32
Reports between Guest and Host at the Investiture of the Palace Lady (宮主) — Report of the Deputy Envoy in Reply to the Banquet Companion宮主封冊客主狀 副使行上筵伴答狀
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.
肅將命綍。叨貳使車。式遄其行。顧未遑於禮問。何謙之過。遽先辱於賢書。想爾披承。曷勝喜幸。
In all reverence bearing the rescript whereon the command was written, I have presumptuously taken the place next after the envoy's carriage. Hastening upon that road, I look back and see that I had no leisure to ask after You as the rites require. How is it that You were so excessively modest as of a sudden to send down a worthy letter first? Unfolding it and bearing it up, how should I master my gladness and my good fortune?