Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 39

Text for the rite of Atabagu (阿吒波拘), the Mighty Great General, held at Honggyeongwon弘慶院行阿吒波拘威大將軍道場文

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 · 142 Chinese characters · reading time 1.5 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 39 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.

佛慈廣大。開利物之勝門。神力猛嚴。現護世之靈應。伏念乘時季叔。襲位艱難。業未應於一千。限幾臨於百六。況歲行正壓於城都。而金木相剋。抑時令不孚於法曆。而陰陽屢愆。嗟予蕞爾之資。鍾此顯然之變。夙夜憂懼。淵氷戰兢。庶憑善救之私。逆杜未萌之患。敞法筵於寶宇。宣貝藏之微言。伏願甘露普霑。眞風旁暢。戢干戈櫜弓矢。四方無虞。保社稷和人民。萬世永賴。

The Buddha's compassion is broad and great, opening a surpassing gate that benefits all things; the spirit's power is fierce and stern, showing forth a divine response that guards the world.

Prostrate, I consider that I was born into a latter age and succeeded to this seat in a hard time. Our work has not yet answered to a thousand years, and already the term of ill luck has nearly reached the hundred and sixth. Still more, the Year Star presses directly upon the capital, metal and wood strive to overcome each other, and the seasons do not answer to the calendar, so that yin and yang often go awry. Alas, with my paltry stuff I have met with portents as plain as these. Day and night I am troubled and afraid, trembling as one who treads a deep pool or thin ice.

Leaning upon the hidden heart that saves so well, I would stop beforehand the trouble that has not yet sprouted. In a jeweled hall I open the seat of the Law and set forth the hidden words of the scripture stored on pattra leaves.

Prostrate, I pray that the sweet dew may moisten far and wide and the true teaching spread everywhere. Let spear and shield be put away and bow and arrow be bagged, so that there is no care in the four quarters; and let the altars of the state be kept and the people made harmonious, so that ten thousand generations may long be upheld.

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