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Short Letter to the Same Person as Above同前小簡

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 · 154 Chinese characters · reading time 1.7 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Latter Collection, Book 12 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.

啓。某日奉慈緘。備諳法體萬順。稍慰傾渴。前此寄尺牘。以法王不蹈京師爲規。今蒙來敎。不以其意廻示。想其書未達也。所諭皆祗稟。僕亦迫老病。方有乞退之心。若果如志。以幅巾短褐。往奉杖屨。一瀉鬱懷宜矣。然疾恙如此。其復與未。猶未可知。加之一子有未婚者。不能無向平之志。胸中塵累。可勝言哉。若法王便不至輦下。則竟一生無見期。宜兼炤此意毋輕也。怱遽未詳。俟後悉陳。惟冀自嗇。云云。

I report. On such a day I received your kind letter and came to know in full that all goes smoothly with your dharma-body; the heart that had been thirsting with regard is a little consoled.

Before this I sent a short letter speaking of the Dharma King's not treading the capital; but now that I receive the teaching you have sent, you have made no answering reference to that intention, so it seems that the letter never reached you. All that you instructed me in I have respectfully received.

I too am driven by age and illness, and have it in mind now to beg leave to withdraw. If it indeed turns out as I wish, it would be fitting to go in a cloth cap and short hempen robe, attend at your side, and pour out my pent-up feelings once. But my illness being what it is, whether it will mend or not is still unknown. Moreover one son is not yet married, and I cannot but have it in mind to withdraw only after my child's marriage is done. Can the dust-like entanglements within my breast be told in full?

If the Dharma King will not come at once to where the sovereign is, then in the end there will be no appointed time to see you in all my life; so you should weigh this intention of mine as well, and not make light of it. Being busy, I cannot be detailed. I shall wait for another day to say it all. I only hope you will take care of yourself. And so forth.

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