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Voices 5

離別鄉井許已久
誰知流落木樓囚
顧影痛憐淚滿巾
試問罪何執我咎

李海題

It’s been a long time since I left my home village;
Who could know I’d end up imprisoned in a wooden building?
I’m heartsick when I see my reflection, my handkerchief is soaked in tears;
I ask you, what crime did I commit to deserve this?

Inscribed by Li Hai
South Village, Taishan

Listen to the poem in Toishanese ⏯

Island 120

一月被囚履不前
滿州輪來蒙古旋
但得南洋登程日
求活何須美利堅

For one month I was imprisoned; my slippers never moved forward.
I came on the Manchuria and will return on the Mongolia.
But if I could make the trip to Nanyang, I would.
Why should America be the only place to seek a living?

Listen to the poem in Toishanese ⏯

Translations:
Egan, Charles. Voices of Angel Island: Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910-1945. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
Lai, H. Mark, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung, eds. Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. Second edition. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014.