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Sacrificial address offered to Yu, Instructor in the National Academy祭庾學諭文

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 · 149 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 37 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.

月日云云。久矣造物者之莫信兮。茫兮昧兮吾竟未究。其將誑而戲耶。抑以害且妬兮。蘭茝何爲兮易摧。薋菉何爲兮易茂。玉何易折兮石何堅。回何短命兮跖何壽。物特特兮難長。人英英兮莫久。是自古所歎兮。天豈爲君兮獨詬。嗟嗟若人。士族領袖。年未二十。鸞沖驥驟。成名兮何早。棄世兮何暴。謂天不妬兮。何致之夭死。生與死第先後耳。孰不至乎如此。酌一杯而爲訣。冀明靈之歆止。

Such-and-such a month, such-and-such a day, and so forth.

It is long since the Maker of things became impossible to trust. He is far off and dark, and I have never in the end been able to reason him out. Does he mean to deceive us and make sport of us, or to harm us and begrudge us?

Why are the orchid and the angelica so easily broken, and why do the caltrop and the goosegrass so easily grow rank? Why does jade break easily while stone stays hard, and why was Yan Hui (顔回) short of life while Robber Zhi (盜跖) lived long? What is outstanding beyond others can hardly last, and when a man excels he does not last long. This has been sighed over from of old; why should Heaven have put you alone to shame?

Alas, one such as you was the head of the gentry. Not yet twenty years old, you soared like a luan bird and ran like a fine steed. How early you made your name, and how sudden your leaving of the world! If Heaven did not begrudge you, how would it have let you die young?

Life and death are only a matter of before and after, and who does not come to this? I pour one cup and make it my farewell; may your bright spirit partake of it.

Interlinear notes 1

代希禪師

Written on behalf of the Meditation Master Hui.

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