Room 211 | East Wall

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Voices 43
Voices 43

好世界口口

喜事重重復重重
女兒出閣子乘龍
孰得令子為佳婿
且把嚴親作岳翁
奠雁不須甥別 [ 離 ]
歸寧何至髮妝容
總之一生家庭樂
肥水唔流遠處用

A Good World

Joyful events come, one and then the other;
Daughters leave their chambers, and sons ride on dragons.
How to make your honored son into a fine son-in-law?
Just take this strict father, and make him his father-in-law!
There’s no need for the groom to leave home to perform the “offering of the geese,”
And why should the bride get all dressed up for the “ceremony of return?”
In short, for a lifetime of family happiness,
Don’t spread manure in faraway places!

Listen to the poem in Cantonese ⏯

Translations:
Egan, Charles. Voices of Angel Island: Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910-1945. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
Russell NaumanRoom 211