Text for bowing to the stars, keeping watch through the night, in prayer for favor祈恩直宿拜星文
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 · 78 Chinese characters · reading time 0.8 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.
Wielding the airs of yin and yang, you show forth your forms in the heaven above; and following the courses of gap and eul (甲乙), you take charge of the men of the world below.
I consider that with this worthless body I am fortunate to lean upon the light you bend down and shed. Adding sincerity, I specially spread the fast and the bright sacrifice, and have performed the rite of bowing the head and joining the hands in prayer.
Bend your immortal steps hither and partake of what is offered in faith. Guard and help us from heaven, that we may receive beauty coming ever more; and let us long enjoy the state and greatly embrace the happy fortune of great peace.