Marshall R. Pihl’s “The Tale of Hong Kiltong” is known as the first annotated English translation of Hŏ Kyun’s “Hong Kiltong chŏn” (Kyŏngp’an 24). It was published in Korea Journal in July 1968 and slightly revised and reproduced in Peter H. Lee’s Anthology of Korean Literature (1981). Pihl’s initial translation is divided into three sections: (1) the introduction of the original author and the translator (a short expository prologue), (2) the translated text (main story), and (3) the “Translator’s Notes to the Text” (seven endnotes). All these divisions are discussed in this article, with an emphasis on Pihl’s translation decisions. Specifically, extracts from the initial translation are examined in several thematic categories, including cultural references (e.g. kisaeng, li, yang), vague terms (e.g. mowol 某月, such-and-such month), Chinese transliterations (e.g. Lotao-kuo, yuldo 栗島), stock expressions (e.g., gaksŏl 却說, the story goes on), italicized paragraphs, and archaic words (e.g. yore, sire, forthwith). The extracts are then compared with the corresponding segments of the revised version in Lee’s anthology. This article concludes with brief discussion of Pihl’s views of literary translation and potential implications of his translations.