Han Yong-un

A poet and Buddhist monk. He wrote for the reform of Korean Buddhism and was one of the 33 signatories to the Korean Declaration of Independence in 1919. In 1926 he published The Silence of Love, a collection in which love, truth, freedom and the nation can overlap as poetic meanings.

A place in Korean culture

Han Yong-un connects modern Korean poetry, Buddhist thought and the historical experience of the colonial period. In The Silence of Love, “nim” remains deliberately open: it may evoke a beloved, the nation, truth or the Buddha.

What else to know

The movement from separation toward reunion—and the space left for readers to decide what “nim” means—keeps the poems open to new readings.

The story behind it

2026 marks 100 years since The Silence of Love was first published. Today’s Dear Now returns to the collection to ask why the meaning of “nim” still refuses to close into a single answer.

Sources & context

2026-09-30

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