Featured

Voices 19

偶感七絕

無賴鄉心
偶感離情
可憐今夜
獨照他鄉

民國初年九月[ 四 ] [日]
台邑口口村人
李鏡波題
天洋丸

Random Thoughts

Unbidden, my homesick heart
Feels the sting of parting.
Sadly, the moon this night
Shines only on a foreign land.

4th [??] Day [??], 9th Month,
1st Year of the Republic
of China (1912)
Inscribed by Li Jingbo of
[??] Village, Taishan
Tenyō Maru

Listen to the poem in Toishanese ⏯

Island 109

偶感

親老家貧
寒來暑往
無情白鬼
悲憤填膺

台邑李鏡波題

Random Feelings

My parents are old; my family is poor.
Cold weather comes; hot weather goes.
Heartless white devils,
Sadness and anger fill my heart.

By Lee Gengbo of Toishan

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.