Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 38

Separate sacrificial address offered before Taejo太祖前別祭文

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 · 94 Chinese characters · reading time 1 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 38 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.

云云。人墮阨窮。必呼父母。惟我有邦。實聖祖所搆。旣搆其初。寧忘厥後。于今不幸。遭此逆寇。嗣孫之憂。迺聖祖之疚。我聖在天。忍不是救。如其不然。國非我有。先王血祀。能復存否。毋謂臣微。假臣以手。臣若滅賊。於國不負。生死存亡。惟命是受。云云。

And so forth.

When a man falls into a blocked and straitened place, he calls without fail upon his father and his mother That we have a kingdom at all is truly what the holy Taejo framed Having framed its beginning already, how should he forget what comes after Now we are unfortunate, and have met with these defiant brigands The trouble of the descendants who follow after is the holy Taejo's own pain Our holy one is in heaven, and would he bear not to deliver us from this If it were not so, the kingdom would not be ours and could there be sacrifices to the former kings again Do not say that your servant is lowly, but lend your servant a hand If your servant destroys the brigands, there will be no failing of the kingdom To live and to die, to be and not to be, I shall take only as you command

And so forth.