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Voices 7

進伙大吉

Great Blessings to Those Who Enter This House

Listen to the inscription in Cantonese ⏯

Island 1

水景如苔千里曲
陸路無涯路步難
平風到埠心如是
安樂誰知住木樓

The seascape resembles lichen twisting and turning for a thousand li.
There is no shore to land, and it is difficult to walk.
With a gentle breeze I arrived at the city thinking all would be so.
At ease, how was one to know he was to live in a wooden building?

Listen to the poem in Cantonese ⏯

Island 87

特勸同胞不可憂
雖然被困在木樓
他日中華興轉後
檀用炸彈滅美洲

I strongly advise my countrymen not to worry,
Even though you are imprisoned in a wooden building.
Someday after China rises and changes,
She will be adept at using bombs to obliterate America.

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.