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Maybe Love
Found in the Academic magazine, Azalea: Journal of Korean Literature & Culture, Volume 4.
Yi Kwang-su was seventeen years old in December
1909 when he published “Maybe Love” (Ai ka 愛か2) in Meiji
Gakuin’s Shirogane gakuhō, his school newsletter.
A foreign student in Tokyo, Yi debuted as a fiction writer under the pen
name Yi Po-kyŏng at a time of remarkable literary ferment
in Japan in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905),
whose battles an even younger Yi had seen fought on his native
Korean territory. Yet “Maybe Love” is often ignored by literary
historians in Korea either on account of its alien language (Japanese) or its awkward theme (unrequited love by a Korean
boy for a Japanese schoolmate). It was not until the early 1970s
that scholars Kim Yun-sik in Korea and Ōmura Masao in
Japan began to argue that “Maybe Love” was fundamental to
a complete understanding of Yi’s early career, and it was not
until 1981 that Kim produced a Korean translation of the story.
In more recent years, Chŏng Paek-su has convincingly argued
that “Maybe Love” is equally important in terms of content and
style for the origins of modern Korean-language fiction as a
whole. At the same time, other critics such as Im Chong-guk
have pointedly condemned Yi’s theme of interracial homosexual
love (tongsŏng’ae) as his earliest “harbinger of anti-Korean
thinking” (panminjokjŏk in palsang ŭi hyosi) in a life that would
be marred by pro-Japanese collaborationist rhetoric as well as
marked by literary genius.
“Maybe Love,” what Yi called his “maiden work”
(ch’ŏnyŏjak) of fiction, was the result of a decision to abandon
a planned longer work he had begun in March of 1909 entitled
“Slaves” (Noye) and rework what he had written into a number
of short stories. The first of these stories, “Maybe Love,” was
completed on the evening of November 18 that same year; the
second, “The Tiger” (Tora), on November 24. His diary entry
for December 21 expresses his happiness over the publication
of “Maybe Love” in his school’s newsletter (“Kippŭta. Kwaenhi
kippŭta”). But it is anything but a happy story.
Introduction to Yi Kwang-su's "Maybe Love" (Ai ka, 1909), by translator John Whittier Treat
Yi Kwang-su was seventeen years old in December
1909 when he published “Maybe Love” (Ai ka 愛か2) in Meiji
Gakuin’s Shirogane gakuhō, his school newsletter.
A foreign student in Tokyo, Yi debuted as a fiction writer under the pen
name Yi Po-kyŏng at a time of remarkable literary ferment
in Japan in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905),
whose battles an even younger Yi had seen fought on his native
Korean territory. Yet “Maybe Love” is often ignored by literary
historians in Korea either on account of its alien language (Japanese) or its awkward theme (unrequited love by a Korean
boy for a Japanese schoolmate). It was not until the early 1970s
that scholars Kim Yun-sik in Korea and Ōmura Masao in
Japan began to argue that “Maybe Love” was fundamental to
a complete understanding of Yi’s early career, and it was not
until 1981 that Kim produced a Korean translation of the story.
In more recent years, Chŏng Paek-su has convincingly argued
that “Maybe Love” is equally important in terms of content and
style for the origins of modern Korean-language fiction as a
whole. At the same time, other critics such as Im Chong-guk
have pointedly condemned Yi’s theme of interracial homosexual
love (tongsŏng’ae) as his earliest “harbinger of anti-Korean
thinking” (panminjokjŏk in palsang ŭi hyosi) in a life that would
be marred by pro-Japanese collaborationist rhetoric as well as
marked by literary genius.
“Maybe Love,” what Yi called his “maiden work”
(ch’ŏnyŏjak) of fiction, was the result of a decision to abandon
a planned longer work he had begun in March of 1909 entitled
“Slaves” (Noye) and rework what he had written into a number
of short stories. The first of these stories, “Maybe Love,” was
completed on the evening of November 18 that same year; the
second, “The Tiger” (Tora), on November 24. His diary entry
for December 21 expresses his happiness over the publication
of “Maybe Love” in his school’s newsletter (“Kippŭta. Kwaenhi
kippŭta”). But it is anything but a happy story.
Introduction to Yi Kwang-su's "Maybe Love" (Ai ka, 1909), by translator John Whittier Treat
8 pages, Online
First published January 1, 1909
11 people want to read
About the author
Kwang-su Yi
11 books8 followersYi Kwang-su (Hangul: 이광수) was born in 1892 during the twilight years of the Korean monarchy, which ended in 1910 with the anexation of Korea by Japan. Recognized as one of modern Korea's best novelists, especially for his 1917 novel The Heartless, he died in disfavor in 1950, accused of collaboration with the Japanese.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 23, 2024
Male intellectual with an inferiority complex seeks love. TLDR it doesn’t end well.
December 11, 2025
oh mungil my dramatic baby
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews