Left to right: Voices 47, Voices 44

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Island 81:
今日兄弟困牢籠袛為祖國
他日同胞欲自由務須努力

Today, we brothers are imprisoned in a jail; it is only because of our ancestral land.
If our countrymen want freedom in the future, then they must make an effort.

Voices 47:
今日兄弟困牢籠只為祖國
刻毒流外溢
他年生師正強盛終 [ 以 ] 宗 [ 祠 ]
由喜殺番奴

南邑次 [ 郎 ] 題

Today we brothers are imprisoned in a jail—only for the sake of our ancestral land,
Evil poison flows out like a flood.
In future years our armies will become strong at last—then for the ancestral shrines
We will joyfully kill the foreign slaves.

Composed by Second Brother from Nanyi

No recording available

Voices 44

斬草除根絕其光

Chop the weeds and pull the roots—destroy their glory.

Listen to the inscription 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.