The author and poet known only as 'Bandi' (a pseudonym meaning 'firefly') spent his childhood in China before returning to North Korea, the country of his birth, as a young man. Initially writing for North Korean magazines, the focus of Bandi's writing changed forever after the deaths of many people close to him during the great famine of the 1990s. The experiences of this time made him resolve to share with the outside world a true likeness of the harsh North Korean society as he himself saw it. With the help of a relative, he was able to smuggle a collection of his poems and stories to South Korea. The first part of this manuscript achieved international acclaim when it was published as the short story collection The Accusation: Forbidden Stories From Inside North Korea (2018).

This is the first work of Bandi's poetry to be made available in English, offering a uniquely evocative portrait of life in North Korea, that most mythologised of countries.

Preface Poem
1. Barren Earth A New Arirang for the North
Green Leaves, Falling
Blizzard
Bloody Fall
A Maiden's Window
Song of the Fire Swallows
Chajabi (The Hitchhiker)
Ugly, White Snow
The Mill on the Mountain
New Seongcheon Station

2. Exhausted Heart

Song of the Red People
Roundabout Blues
Toads
No Ingredients Blues
Idol
50 Years of Red
Five Thieves Blues
Stepmother
The Song of Kim Juseok
Heartsick
Red Locomotive
Night at the Military Camp
Affliction in the Red House

3. Longing for You, My Love
One Heart
Long, Long Winter Nights
Ah! KBS Educational Channel
My Love
How Much I Love You
Please Deliver Just This
Blow, South Wind
This Lonely Life
I Awaited You, My Love

4. Attached to a Life
Youth is a Forking Road
O Azaleas
Song of Life
Pine Trees
Thoughts of Mother
Woman of Pure Love
Oak Tree in Winter
A Man
Your Lover

5. Wishes
Bandi (Firefly)
Landscape White with Snow
Why I Love Wildflowers
Me for Myself
The Whistling Man
Today
The World Where People Live
Open-minded Life
Sow Love, Reap Love
A Dream

Afterword: Bandi's Dream - Do Hee-yun