Report in reply to the congratulations of the Military Commissioner of the Northern Border on New Year's Day元正。答北界兵馬使賀狀。
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 · 89 Chinese characters · reading time 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.
The willows at your camp shake out their gold, and we now meet the season of earliest spring. Your fine paper is white as snow, and from afar it has carried over the luster of ink set down in your own hand.
I humbly consider that Your Excellency of such-and-such office came forth from the distant palace to preside over the frontier passes. Your holding them down is weighty as a mountain, so that the sovereign has no more northern cares; your authority moves as thunder goes, so that the barbarians dare not come down southward. Meeting now a fair morning, you embrace a greatly beautiful omen.
I, so-and-so, without the ability to govern evenly, have defiled a seat of deliberation and counsel. I was just about to compose a letter of congratulation when of a sudden your worthy letter arrived first. Since receiving and reading it, joy and honor are both earnest in me.