Lament for Master O Deokjeon吳先生德全哀詞
濮陽先生吳世才。字德全。中古名學士諱學麟之孫也。家世以儒顯。兄弟三人。曰世功。曰世文。公其季也。世功世文。皆當世名儒。而公實白眉之良。二兄亦自以爲不及。學士李知深以女妻之。間或負氣偃蹇。李公愛其才。不敢訾焉。尤精力耽六經。盡誦周易。餘經雖不期於誦。其背文而誦者亦幾乎半。蓋熟於口而不覺出吻故耳。嘗手寫六經。謂人曰。百讀不如一寫之存心。爲詩文。得韓杜體。雖牛童走卒。無有不知名者。少疏雋小檢。晚節登科第。始折節刻勵。恂恂然禮法君子也。尙不容於世。蹇躓不振。嘗以書干趙，柳兩公。其辭哀切悲壯。抑揚婉轉。眞有古人風。讀之不覺涕下。然而猶不得被薦。則甚矣世之迫隘之如此也。先生度終不爲世用。於是有長往之志。東京。外祖所出也。意欲歸老。以路遠難於徒步。遂求爲祭告使祝史。乘驛而往。因留之不復京師。東都亦無有力護者。卒以窮困死。前死日。有友人夢見公乘白鶴盤旋者。明日謁之。先生已化矣。嗚呼。昔屈原，賈誼雖被疏斥。其始莫不被君寵遇。頗伸蘊蓄。李太白亦爾。杜甫雖窮。亦得爲員郞。公獨卒不霑一命而死。天耶命耶。果天也。其忍使才賢薄命如此。是何理耶。昔公之未東也。始訪予於城西之莊。留浹辰論懷款密。予年方十八。猶未冠。公已五十三矣。予欲以丈人行事之。公不肯焉。許以忘年曰。古之人論交。但論志之何如耳。不必以齒。吾才雖不及嵇康。以子爲阮籍可矣。自是嘗與遊詩酒間。每於名流廣會中。以得予爲誇。或譏以爲先生老大師儒也。安用此孺子爲友而驕其心耶。公輒曰。非子輩所知也。此公之所以賞予於頭角未露時者也。從遊僅三稔。雖不能盡襲蘭芳。其漬餘膏亦多矣。昔陶潛死。門人私贈諡曰靖節先生。予之以稚齒。被先生斵墁。不啻若門人。以是私贈諡曰玄靜先生。遂爲哀詞曰。
Master Bogyang (濮陽先生), O Sejae (吳世才), had the courtesy name Deokjeon (德全); he was the grandson of a famed academician of middle antiquity whose name was Hangnin (學麟). His house had been distinguished in scholarship for generations. There were three brothers, Segong (世功) and Semun (世文), and the Lord was the youngest. Segong and Semun were both famed scholars of their time, but the Lord was truly the finest among them, and his two elder brothers themselves said that they did not come up to him. The academician Yi Jisim (李知深) gave him his daughter to be his wife. Now and then he trusted to his high spirit and bore himself haughtily, but Lord Yi prized his talent and did not dare to reproach him.
He bent his strength further, immersed himself in the Six Classics, and recited the whole of the Book of Changes by heart. The remaining classics he did not set out to memorize, yet of these too what he could recite without looking at the text was nearly half, for they had grown familiar in his mouth and came out past his lips without his knowing. Once he copied out the Six Classics with his own hand and said to people, "Reading a hundred times is not so good as copying once and keeping it in the heart." In composing poetry and prose he caught the manner of Han Yu and Du Fu, so that even oxherd boys and errand-runners were none of them ignorant of his name.
In youth he was unrestrained and outstanding, but he kept no guard upon his bearing; only when he passed the examination late in life did he first bend his will, labor hard, and become a careful gentleman of the rites. Even so he was not received by the world, and he limped along without rising. Once he submitted writings to the two lords Jo and Yu, and his words were plaintive and tragic, rising and falling and winding about, with truly the manner of the ancients, so that reading them one wept without knowing it. Yet in the end he was not recommended; so severe is the harshness of the world, to such a degree as this.
The Master reckoned that he would never in the end be of use to the world, and so he set his mind on going far away. Donggyeong (東京) was the place where his mother's father was born. He wished to go back and grow old there, but the road was long and hard to travel on foot. At last he sought the post of invocator to a sacrificial envoy, rode the post-horses there, and stayed on without returning to the capital. In the Eastern Capital too there was no one to look after him with any effort, and he died at last in want and hardship. On the day before his death a certain friend saw in a dream the Lord riding a white crane and wheeling about. Going to him the next day, he found that the Master had already passed away.
Alas, of old Qu Yuan (屈原) and Jia Yi (賈誼), though they were thrust far away, had all of them at the first received their ruler's favor and had unfolded a good deal of what they held within. It was so with Li Taibai (李太白) as well, and Du Fu (杜甫), poor as he was, still became a vice director of a bureau. The Lord alone died without obtaining a single appointment. Was it Heaven? Was it fate? If it was truly Heaven, how could it bear to make the lot of the talented and the worthy so thin as this? What manner of reason is this?
Long ago, before the Lord had gone to Donggyeong, he came to call on me for the first time at my villa west of the city, and he stayed twelve days, sharing his heart with me warmly. I was eighteen and had not yet taken the cap of manhood, and the Lord was already fifty-three. I wished to serve him as an elder, but the Lord would not have it. He allowed me to be a friend who forgets the years, and said, "When the ancients discussed friendship they discussed only what a man's will was like, and did not go by years. My talent may not come up to Xi Kang (嵇康), but I may well take you for my Ruan Ji (阮籍)."
From then on we roamed together amid poetry and wine, and at every large gathering of famed men he boasted of having got me. If someone reproached him, saying, "The Master is an old and great teacher of scholars; how can he take this child for a friend and make his heart proud of it?" the Lord would say at once, "This is not a thing for you and your kind to know." This is why the Lord recognized me when my horns had not yet shown. I followed and roamed with him barely three years, so I could not take over the whole fragrance of the orchid, yet what I was steeped in of his remaining richness was much.
Long ago, when Tao Qian (陶潛) died, his disciples privately offered him a posthumous name and called him Master Jingjie (靖節先生). I, in my young years, received the Master's shaping and polishing no less than his disciples did. Therefore I privately offer him a posthumous name and call him Master Hyeonjeong (玄靜先生), and I go on to make a lament, saying thus.
Interlinear notes 1
幷序
The preface is included as well.
有猗夫子。器涵涵兮。鳶肩方口。頎而髥兮。文詞游刃。有餘銛兮。六經粹奧。窅搜探兮。人難有一。公獨兼兮。胸中恢廣。混包含兮。文場虎攫。視耽耽兮。李杜爲敵。一接殲兮。抱寶不售。分固甘兮。塊然獨居。守窮閻兮。獵纓正色。貌矜嚴兮。高官豐祿。豈不足擔兮。鰌鱓得水。躍江潭兮。戢鱗泥淖。龍晦潛兮。刻畫自媚。盡無鹽兮。西施布袂。衣不縑兮。朝臣不薦。得無慙兮。有吻莫啓。孰弛鉗兮。才賢蹇躓。其視恬兮。朱門煌煌。勢徒炎兮。屈平賈誼。雖被讒兮。始於國政。無不參兮。嗟若先生。老窮巖兮。才恩滴澤。猶不霑兮。崎嶇世味。備嘗諳兮。奮然獨往。天之南兮。江湖卑濕。不可淹兮。想昇碧落。鶴爲驂兮。不爾逍遙。鼇岫三兮。縹霞紅霧。擁仙龕兮。欲往從遊。予骨凡兮。安得輕擧。挹子衫兮。綴芳薦諡。欲寄緘兮。翩翩靑鳥。倘來銜兮。
Admirable, O master: your vessel brimmed and brimmed. Kite's shoulders and a square mouth, tall and long of beard. Your skill in writing plied the blade with keenness to spare. You searched far into the pure depths of the Six Classics. What others could hardly have one of, the Lord alone held together. Within your breast all was broad and wide, mingling and holding everything. In the field of letters you glared like a tiger about to seize. You took Li Bai and Du Fu for rivals, and in one bout destroyed them. You held a treasure and could not sell it, yet you took your lot as sweet. You lived alone and bare, keeping to a poor alley. You set your cap-strings straight and composed your face, and your bearing was stern and correct. High office and thick emoluments — how could you not have carried them? Mudfish and eels get water and leap about in rivers and ponds. The dragon folds in its scales and sinks into the mire and hides itself. Those who carve and paint themselves to curry favor are all of them like Wuyan (無鹽). Xi Shi (西施) wore sleeves of hemp and did not put on silk. The courtiers did not recommend you; should they not be ashamed? You had a mouth and could not open it; who would loosen that bit? The talented and worthy limped along, and they looked on unmoved. The vermilion gates glittered, and only the houses of power were hot. Qu Ping (屈平) and Jia Yi (賈誼) suffered slander, it is true, yet at the first there was no part of the state's affairs they did not share in. Alas, one such as the Master grew old beneath a poor rock. Not even a drop of the favor that falls upon talent came to wet him. He went through every rugged taste of the world and knew them all. He roused himself and went alone to the south of the sky. The rivers and lakes are low and damp, no place to linger long. Surely he has risen to the blue void and taken a crane for his side-horse. Or else he roams on the three peaks that rest on a turtle's back. Thin sunset glow and red mist surround the shrine of the immortals. I would go and roam in his train, but my bones are common. How might I rise lightly and take hold of your gown? I weave fragrant words, offer a posthumous name, and would send a sealed letter, if perhaps a bluebird in fluttering flight might come and carry it in its beak.