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

Writings composed at Gyeyang — Report presented to the Surveillance Commissioner (按察使) on taking up office桂陽所著狀 初到官上按察使狀

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 · 91 Chinese characters · reading time 1.1 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.

謫來卑濕。茫若墮空。仰止高明。確如倚岳。恭惟按部使臣。長才經遠。淳德鎭浮。夙荷聖知。依日光於漢殿。出爲天使。流星彩於蜀都。恩如春之溫溫。威不寒而凜凜。某謬分憂寄。幸託仁庥。苟可謁於征軒。豈辭重繭。顧有拘於官守。未得奮飛。

Banished, I dwell in a low and damp land, so far adrift that it is as though I had fallen out of empty air. Looking up to one so lofty and clear-sighted, I feel as firm as though I leaned upon a great mountain.

I humbly consider that you, the Surveillance Commissioner, order far-reaching affairs with great talent and settle a restless age with unaffected virtue. Early you won the sovereign's recognition and leaned upon his sunlight as in the palace of Han (漢); going forth as the sovereign's envoy, you spill starlight over the land of Shu (蜀). Your kindness is warm as spring, and your dignity is awe-inspiring though it brings no cold.

I, so-and-so, have presumptuously taken up the charge of sharing the sovereign's cares, and am fortunate to have found shelter in your benevolent shade. If I could truly present myself before your touring carriage, how should I beg off for blistered feet? But as it is, I am bound by the duties of my office and cannot shake out my wings and fly.

‹ Writings composed at Gyeyang — Report in reply to General Choe, Magistrate of GanghwaContentsReports exchanged between guest and host at the investiture of the imperial son and the princess — Report presenting gifts by the Patent-Reading Envoy (讀冊使) of the banquet-companion party ›Listen to this piece