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

Report presented, on behalf of the magistrate of such-and-such prefecture, to the Sacrificial Announcement Envoy (祭告使)爲某州守呈祭告使狀

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 · 98 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.

雲霄承命。原隰耀華。行色所巡。讙謠遍洽。恭惟某官。邈從天闕。夙駕星軺。載馳載驅。信賢勞於王事。克禋克祀。亦與沐於神休。燕及生民。均蒙陰賜。某等。謬叨憂寄。愧乏吏能。自逖聽先聲。願一得覯止見止。及迫臨弊境。實萬倍顚之倒之。曁接淸塵。粗伸素蘊。

Receiving the command at the palace, you cast your light over fields and marshes. Wherever your progress turns, songs of rejoicing are everywhere content.

I humbly consider that Your Excellency of such-and-such office came forth from the distant palace and early drove an envoy's carriage, running on and running still, so that you truly labor at the state's business beyond others. You perform the sacrifices with all sincerity, and so we too are steeped together in the beauty the spirits send down. Your ease reaches the people, and we receive the kindness of your covering us evenly.

We, so-and-so and the rest, have presumptuously taken up the charge of sharing the sovereign's cares, and are ashamed that our ability as officials falls short. Since hearing from afar of the fame that preceded you, we have wished to see you once and then again; and when you drew near our prefecture, we were in truth ten thousand times more flustered. Welcoming your pure progress, we set out in outline the wishes we have long held.

‹ Report presented, on behalf of the same man, to the Envoy of the Horse Pasture (馬場)Contents Report, on behalf of the magistrate of Neungseong, congratulating the Prefect of Naju on taking up office ›Listen to this piece