Thanking Master Mun (文) of Daewangsa (大王寺) for Sending Charcoal, Written with a Running Brush走筆謝大王寺文師送炭
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 · 3 passages · 84 Chinese characters · reading time 0.9 min
Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 1 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.
臘天銖炭價超翔。千里殷勤寄草堂。不獨炙炎柔手足。感他熏酒暖於湯。
In the twelfth-month sky even a penny's worth of charcoal soars in price,
yet from a thousand li away you kindly sent some to my thatched hall.
Not only does its fire thaw my hands and feet —
I thank you that it warms my wine hotter than boiled water.
邇來方墮寒氷獄。吒吒波波忍可堪。忽荷德人恩煦物。滿家和暖似春酣。
Of late I had just fallen into the hell of cold ice,
shivering and shivering, wondering how I could bear it.
Suddenly I received the kindness of a man of virtue who warms all things,
and the whole house is mild, as though spring were at its height.
年年貺炭色如䃜。喜及寒兒與凍妻。算得重恩如嶽峻。賽期遐壽與天齊。
Year after year the charcoal you grant is black as dark jade,
and the joy of it reaches my cold children and my frozen wife.
Reckoning it up, your repeated kindness is high as a mountain,
and what I can promise in return is that your long life stand level with heaven.