Matching the Rhymes of Vice Minister Yi's Two Poems on Peaches and Pears Sent in Reply, Answering with Four Poems次韻李侍郞見和桃梨詩二首。以四首和之。
縱有千般貺。何如二色團。老妻那得喫。稚子謾窺飡。未破涎先出。初嘗舌已酸。申蒙琢玉句。圓熟兩相看。
Though there were a thousand kinds of gifts, would any match these round things of two colors? How should my old wife get any to eat, while the little children peer at them in vain and would eat them. Before I bite, the saliva comes first; at the first taste my tongue is already made to tingle. Again I receive lines of verse like polished jade, and I look upon the two, round and well ripened.
Interlinear notes 1
庚子十月
The tenth month of the Gyeongja year.
雖從天自化。孰把手能團。一樹名眞貴。千年實已飡。入腸驚大爽。留液嚥餘酸。黃碧交相映。還將玩好看。
Though they came to be of themselves from heaven, who could have rounded them with his hands? The name of being a single tree is truly precious, and I have already eaten fruit that comes once in a thousand years. Entering my bowels they are startlingly cool; swallowing the juice that is left, a sourness lingers. Yellow and green shine upon each other, and instead I gaze on them as playthings.
Interlinear notes 2
廣志云。桃梨海內唯一樹。
The Guangzhi says that of peach and pear there is only one tree in all the world.
桃梨 — taking this as the name of a single tree, "dori," some read it as "of the dori there is only one tree in all the world." Not having seen the Guangzhi, we have left it as in the base text. — Translator
知君眞鄭重。惠我此圓團。手拭纖毛啖。刀裁片月飡。實遵同棗設。異味與樝酸。致物何多侈。堪將富貴看。
I know that you are truly courteous: you sent me these round things. With my hand I wipe off the fine fuzz and eat, with a knife I slice them like crescent moons and eat. Truly you followed the rule of setting them out along with jujubes, and their uncommon flavor goes with the sourness of the hawthorn. How is your sending so generous? It may well be called both generous and precious.
不獨喉流潤。還憐掌弄團。舊聞千戶等。緬想七枚飡。投老頻遭病。爲兒反好酸。憑君休問疾。物自代來看。
Not only is my throat made moist; it is also dear to roll the round things in my palm. Long ago I heard the saying that they are matched against a thousand households, and I think far back on the tale of one who ate seven of them. In my late years I often meet with illness, and like a child I rather love what is sour. I beg of you, do not ask after my illness; the things themselves have come in your stead to look in on me.