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The story begins on one warm spring day when a twenty-year-old man discovers an intriguing sign under a flowering tree. 

Toward the studio that photographs dreams. 20 kilometers to the east. 

Without even giving a thought about the light pink flowers, I embarked on a search for this photo studio that photographs dreams. 

I at last found the studio that photographed dreams.

It was a magnificent mansion too grand to be in the middle of a forest. The house featured white walls and windows and even its roof was white. Only the letters “The Studio That Photographs Dreams” on the large sign hung on the front gate were painted in bright blue. 

꿈을 찍는 시간관으로 가는 길, 동쪽으로 5리. 

나는 그 연분홍 꽃나무에 핀 꽃 같은 건 생각할 사이도 없이

곧 이 꿈을 찍는 사진관을 찾아 떠났습니다.

마침내 나는 꿈을 찍는 사진관을 찾은 것입니다.

이런 산중에 어울리지 않으리만큼 커다랗고 휼륭한 양옥집이었습니다.

벽과 창문만이 아니라 지붕까지 새하얀 집,

다만 정문에 커다랗게 써 붙인 ‘꿈을 찍는 사진관’이라는 

일곱 글자만이 파아란 하늘빛이었습니다.

Interview by SNU Korean literature professor Bang Min-ho

This story is really a heartbreaking one. The protagonist left his hometown in North Korea in the year following the country’s liberation, because his family couldn’t stand the ideological system of North Korea. But his precious childhood remains in the north, where he can’t no longer return. This story is a nostalgic return to his childhood and his friend Sun-i. He desperately wants those wistful memories to be remembered, dreamed and photographed.

You can now dream a dream where you meet your loved one. I will take a photo of your beloved.

This is how you can do that. There is a sheet of paper and a fountain pen in one corner of your room. Write down the name of the person you want to see and a piece of memory from your past on the paper with the pen in blue ink and sleep with that piece of paper tucked in your breast. 

When tomorrow morning comes, you will be able to go home with the picture exactly like your last night’s dream.  

자, 그럼 당신도 곧 그리운 이를 만나는 꿈을 꾸십시오.

그리운 이의 꿈을 사진 찍어 드릴테니.

그 방법~

당신이 있는 방 한 구석에 흰 종이 한 장과 만년필 한 개가 놓여 있습니다.

당신은 그 종이에 그 파란 잉크로 당신이 만나고 싶은 이와

지난 날의 추억의 한 토막을 써서 그걸 가슴 속에 넣고 오늘 밤을 주무십시오.

내일 날이 밝으면, 당신은 지난 밤에 본 꿈과 꼭 같은 사진을 가지고

집으로 돌아갈 수가 있을 겁니다.

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Kang So-chun (Born in Kowon, Hamkyongnam-do Prov., Sep. 16, 1915~May 6, 1963)

: Debuted by publishing children’s poem “Willow Fruit” in 1931

Awarded the 1st (Geumgwan) Order of Cultural Merit in 1985, etc.