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Voices 22

出門尔財勿露眼
鄙人衭袋亦元銀
掛在床中心不關
瞬息被偷啞自恨
感者母親常賣散
雜種龜仔有咁蠻

When leaving home, don’t show your wealth to prying eyes!
In my pants I also had silver dollars.
I hung the pants on the bed, without a care—
In a flash they were stolen, and I’m so angry I cannot speak.
I’m heartsick for my mother, who sold everything for me;
That bastard son of a turtle is so barbaric!

Listen to the poem in Cantonese ⏯

Island 131

拋離家鄉作營謀
風霜捱盡為名求
路經此地來古巴
誰知撥我入山囚

I abandoned my native village to earn a living.
I endured all the wind and frost to seek fame.
I passed this land to get to Cuba.
Who was to know they would dispatch me to a prison on a mountain?

Listen to the poem in Cantonese ⏯

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.