Toggle Menu

Overture to a Tragedy

Kim Ok & translated by Ryan Choi

April 20, 2021

Greetings to you who holds me close. I hold you close because of your beauty (I wanted to possess your beauty)—

The beauty which leaves your body that remains.

Greetings to you who stares at my face. I stare at your face because of your smile (I wanted to possess your smile)—

The smile which leaves your lips that remain.

Current Issue

View our current issue

Subscribe today and Save up to $129.

Greetings to you who wakes me from sleep. I wake you from sleep because of your dreams (I wanted to possess your dreams)—

The dreams with nowhere to go when you wake.

Greetings to you and your luminous gaze. You know that I’m not a thief. I covet only one thing irresistibly,

Your heart—I beg you,

please, replace my heart with yours.

Kim OkKim Ok (1896–19??) was an early Modernist poet and translator, born in Jeongju, North P’yŏng’an (present-day North Korea).


Ryan ChoiRyan Choi is the author of the forthcoming book In Dreams & Other Stories: The Very Short Works of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa.


Latest from the nation