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Island 83

埃崙偶感

飄零湖海倏經秋
萬劫繞過作楚囚
伍子吹簫懷雪恨
蘇卿持節誓報仇
霽雲射矢非多事
勾踐臥薪卻有由
激烈肝腸輕一決
蒼天諾否此志酬

台山助苗長者題

Random Thoughts on the Island

Drifting alone in the ocean, autumn suddenly passed.
I have just gone through ten thousand calamities; still I am a prisoner from Chu.
When Wu Zixu played his flute, he thought of erasing his grievances.
When Su Ziqing held his tasseled staff, he vowed he would one day avenge his wrongs.
When Jiyun shot an arrow at the enemy, he was not doing it to meddle.
When Goujian slept on firewood, he had a reason.
My inflamed liver and bowels are prepared to take life lightly and engage in a life-and death struggle.
Will the blue heavens allow me to fulfill this ambition or not?

By someone from Toishan who helps sprouts grow

Listen to the poem in Toishanese ⏯

Voices 3

滿既亡矣
漢已興矣

The Manchu have lost;
The Han have risen.

Listen to the inscription in Cantonese ⏯

Island 111

忝屬同群事感哀
計音誰遞故鄉回
痛君騎鶴歸冥去
有客乘槎赴美來
淚鎖孤魂悲杜宇
愁牽旅夢到陽台
可憐藥石施醫誤
險被焚屍一炬灰

This unworthy one with the group is grief-stricken.
Who will transmit the news of death back to the village?
I mourn your having ridden the crane to return to the dark regions.
A traveler arrived in America on a ship.
Tears enveloped the lonely soul as the cuckoo uttered its mournful cry.
Sorrow has led me to dream of traveling to the Terrace of Yang.
It is a pity that medicine was wrongly prescribed.
The corpse was nearly cremated to ashes.

Listen to the poem in Cantonese ⏯

Island 112

噩耗傳聞實可哀
弔君何日裹屍回
無能瞑目憑誰訴
有識應知悔此來
千古念愁千古恨
思鄉空對望鄉臺
未酬壯志埋壞土
知爾雄心死不灰

Shocking news, truly sad, reached my ears.
We mourn you. When will they wrap your corpse for return?
You cannot close your eyes. On whom are you depending to voice your complaints?
If you had foresight, you should have regretted coming here.
Now you will be forever sad and forever resentful.
Thinking of the village, one can only futilely face the Terrace for Gazing Homeward.
Before you could fulfill your lofty goals, you were buried beneath clay and earth.
I know that even death could not destroy your ambition.

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.