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E001
From Poetry Talks
E001
Yi Kyubo on Ŭlchi Mundŏk
Jottings by Paegun (Compendium of Remarks on Poetry)
Entry Text
우리나라는 은(殷) 나라 태사(太師 기자(箕子))가 동쪽에 봉해지면서부터 문헌(文獻)이 비로소 생겼는데, 그동안에 있었던 작자(作者)들은 세대가 멀어서 들을 수가 없다. 《요산당외기(堯山堂外紀)》에 을지문덕(乙支文德)의 사적이 갖추어 기록되어 있고, 또 그가 수(隋) 나라 장수 우중문(于仲文)에게 준 오언시(五言詩) 네 구(句)가 실려 있는데, 그 시는 다음과 같다.
상고하니, 을지문덕은 고구려의 대신(大臣)이었다.
Writing emerged in the East when Kija, the Grand Tutor of Shang, came to be enfeoffed here. However, since it was so long ago, nothing can be known about the writers from that period. The Yaoshantang waiji 堯山堂外記 (Unofficial Records from the Hall of Yaoshan) provides detailed notes on Ŭlchi Mundŏk’s 乙支文德 (ca. 612) literary achievements, including a five-character quatrain he presented to the Sui General Yu Zhongwen, which reads,
Your divine strategies probe the heaven’s patterns.
Your wondrous tactics exhaust the earth’s principles.
The battle is won. Your merit is towering.
Know that you have done enough and please call it an end.
Your wondrous tactics exhaust the earth’s principles.
The battle is won. Your merit is towering.
Know that you have done enough and please call it an end.
His composition method (kuppŏp) is marvelous and classical (kigo), and there is no trace of the habit of ornamental (kiryŏ) embellishment. How could dispirited writers of later generations hope to achieve this?
Note: Ŭlchi Mundŏk was a minister of Koguryŏ.
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