Vault #17: Poetry Insider
Hidden Insights and Untold Stories of Angel Island’s Poetry
Angel Island's poems are covered in layers of paint that make them difficult to spot. This is a detail view of several Chinese characters of Voices 24 (105-S-5).
In May 1970, a State Park ranger rediscovered hundreds of poems carved by immigrants into the barracks’ walls. Over the years, researchers have meticulously translated and published 154 Chinese poems/inscriptions from the walls. However, countless others appear throughout the building but are incomplete, illegible, or untranslatable.
Many of the poems carry layers of meaning beyond their translated text that enrich our understanding of Angel Island’s past. The thirteen poems presented below have characteristics that distinguish them among others in the building. Among the selections are:
The barracks’ earliest-dated poem
The only poem with a hidden message
Two poems that were composed twice
The only poem carved in mirror image
The only Dow Moon District (China) poem
Four poems recovered from historic manuscripts
Two poems possibly tied to a dramatic escape
Click here to download a printable map showing the featured poems’ locations.
Translations
Scholars Charles Egan, Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung are responsible for the two most definitive anthologies of Angel Island’s poetry. They dedicated many years to interviewing former detainees, identifying Chinese characters, and translating inscriptions from the barracks walls. Their published works provide a remarkable insight into the thoughts and feelings of those held at the Immigration Station 100 years ago and continue to be a source of interest and inspiration today. The poems below use the numbering convention found in the two following books:
Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940 (2nd Edition) by Him Mark Lai, Genny Lim, and Judy Yung
Voices of Angel Island: Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910-1945 by Charles Egan.
Poems from Lai, Lim, and Yung’s book are labeled “Island XX” and poems from Egan’s book are labeled “Voices XX.” The poems are sometimes followed by a series of numbers and letters that identify their location in the barracks (ex. 205-S-3 = Room 205/South Wall/Section 3).
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The earliest-dated poem in the barracks is Island 100 (105-N-6). The “Fifth Day of the Tenth Moon, Xinhai Year” would be October 5, 1911, five days before the Xinhai Revolution, which toppled the Manchurian Qing Dynasty.
辛亥十月初五
搬房有感而作到來木屋一星期
提起搬屋我極悲
執齊行李忙忙走
其中苦楚有誰知
Translation
Fifth Day of the Tenth Moon, Xinhai Year
Effusion After Moving to Another RoomI arrived in the wooden building one week ago.
Whenever someone mentions switching rooms, it distresses me excessively.
Gathering all my baggage together, I hurriedly run.
Who would ever know the misery of it all?
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Island 78 (105-E-2) is the only poem with a message hidden within the text. The first character of each line—埃崙待剷—says, “This island is to be abolished!”
埃屋三椽聊保身
崙麓積愫不堪陳
待得飛騰順遂日
剷除關稅不論仁香山人題
Translation
The low building with three beams merely shelters the body.
It is unbearable to relate the stories accumulated on the Island slopes.
Wait till the day I become successful and fulfill my wish!
I will show no mercy when I level the immigration station!By one from Toishan
View of the north wall in room 205. Wall N-4 featuring the larger carvings of Island 111 and 112. Wall N-3 is seen in the next section over.
Seeing Double | Island 111 and 112
Island 111 and 112 are the only poems carved twice in the barracks. Both versions can be found in the upstairs Chinese men’s dormitory. On the first wall (205-N-3), the poems are presented in small, mostly illegible writing beneath one larger poem. On a neighboring wall (205-N-4), the poems were carved again in full-sized Chinese characters.
It’s unclear which version was carved first, but they are presented side-by-side in both locations. The poems memorialize a Chinese man who passed away after receiving medical treatment. Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940, describes them as the “most elegant and moving poems” in the building.
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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
Translation
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.
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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
Translation
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.
What Remains | Island 40, 43, 53, and 127
In the Chinese men’s dormitory, there are four poems (205-S-3) that were severely damaged by water intrusion and wood rot. Fortunately, their messages were recovered, thanks to the manuscripts of two Angel Island immigrants, Tet Yee and Smiley Jann.
In 1932, Yee Tet Ming (Tet Yee) copied 96 poems into his notebook while detained in the barracks. Yee said, “Many of the poems were full of sorrow, resentment, and even bitterness. I felt very sad for [the poets].”
A year before Tet Yee, another detainee, Jann Mon Fong (Smiley Jann), recorded 99 poems he found on the walls. Jann explained, “The poems were written all over the walls at Angel Island, wherever the hand could reach, even in the lavatories.”
Yee’s and Jann’s manuscripts were given to researchers in 1976, who located the poems by identifying remnant Chinese characters on the wall. Yet, this is not the only location in the room where poems are either damaged or missing. The manuscripts helped recover several other poems from the upstairs dormitory, notably Island 23, 41, and 98.
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埃崙山半樓上樓
囚困離人夏至秋
夢繞三勻歸故里
腸迴九曲偽西歐
時運不濟空自悶
命途多阻共誰憂
畢拋牢惨付水流
Translation
Halfway up the hill on Island, in the building upstairs,
The imprisoned one has been separated from his people summer to autumn.
Three times I dreamed of returning to the native village.
My intestines are agitated in their nine turns by the false Westerner.
I have run into hard times and am uselessly depressed.
There are many obstacles in life, but who will commiserate with me?
If at a later time I am allowed to land on the American shore,
I will toss all the miseries of this jail to the flowing current. -
囚困木屋天復天
自由東縛豈堪言
舉目誰歡惟静坐
關心自悶不成眠
日永樽空愁莫解
夜長枕冷倩誰憐
參透箇中孤苦味
何如歸去學耕田
Translation
Imprisoned in the wooden building day after day,
My freedom withheld; how can I bear to talk about it?
I look to see who is happy, but they only sit quietly.
I am anxious and depressed and cannot fall asleep.
The days are long and the bottle constantly empty; my sad mood, even so, is not dispelled.
Nights are long and the pillow cold; who can pity my loneliness?
After experiencing such loneliness and sorrow,
Why not just return home and learn to plow the fields? -
自己想來真苦楚
蒼天今日因如何
困我鄙人在木樓
音信無跡實難過
Translation
When I think about it, it is really miserable.
For what reason does the blue heaven today
Imprison this humble person in a wooden building?
With no trace of tidings, it is really distressing -
旅居木屋暗傷神
轉眼韶光莫認真
寄語埃崙將來者
翹頭應望是中人
Translation
Away from home and living in the wooden building, I am secretly grieved.
Splendor fades with the turn of an eye, so be not too earnest.
I leave words with those who will come to Island in the future.
You should raise your head and observe the people.
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In Island 132 (105-E-3), the poem mentions Dow Moon, a district in the Pearl River Delta in China. It is the only poem in the building to mention this district. People from Dow Moon were known to have worked and lived on Angel Island. Mr. Low, a former kitchen worker, said eight of the ten restaurant employees were from Dow Moon.
Read about the kitchen workers in Vault #9: The Restaurant.
斗門人往大溪地
來到木屋十餘日
溪地有人回唐山
誰知此埠極難為
有人回來有人去
使枉洋銀三百餘
不到此埠心不忿
回家父母苦極悲
留下利息重重疊
未知何日還他主
Translation
People from Dowmoon are going to Tahiti,
Having been in the wooden building for more than ten days.
From Tahiti, there are people returning to the Mountains of Tang.
How were they to know this would be such a callous city?
There are people returning, and there are people leaving.
Having wasted more than three hundred silver dollars,
If I do not get to this city, I will be unhappy.
If I return home, my parents would be extremely grief-torn.
Unpaid interest would be piled one on top of another,
Not knowing when it would be repaid to the lender.
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Island 74 (205-E-3) is the only poem carved in mirror image. Like other Chinese poetry, the text is read from top to bottom and right to left, but each character is carved in reverse on each line.
蛟龍失水螻蟻欺
猛虎遭囚小兒戲
被困安敢與爭雄
得勢復仇定有期
Translation
The dragon out of water is humiliated by ants;
The fierce tiger that is caged is baited by a child.
As long as I am imprisoned, how can I dare strive for supremacy?
An advantageous position for revenge will surely come one day.
View of room 115 in the detention barracks. Men from Japan and Mexico were primarily detained in this room. However, a few Chinese poems dated between 1921 and 1924 indicate Chinese men were held here as well. Two poems, Voices 38 and 40, can be found on the wall behind the red shirt in the center of the photo.
Breaking Free | Voices 38 and 40
Voices 38 and 40 (115-W-2) reference a poet’s desire to live in Mexico but lacking the money to do so. The larger of the two poems is dated March 2, 1921—a date closely connected to one man’s story of desperation and escape from Angel Island.
“CHINESE EN ROUTE HOME TAKES OWN LIFE”
In early 1921, the Marin Journal reported that 35-year-old Wong You Yee was “en route from Mexico” when he arrested and sent to the Immigration Station. His breakout occurred on March 4th, two days after Voices 38 was written. According to firsthand accounts, Wong ascended the hill behind the barracks and made a 50-foot leap into San Francisco Bay. Although the media called his death a suicide, the coroner found $1,200 in his clothes, suggesting Wong’s death was likely accidental.
Read Mrs. Mooney’s recollection of Wong’s escape in Vault #15: Employee Cottages.
In the corner of room 115, the poems (Voices 38 and 40) are close to another inscription—Voices 42. Like the poems, Voices 42 also mentions money in its translation. The inscription includes a drawing of an ancient Chinese coin as a symbol of good luck.
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趙子龍一身是膽
先問客棧往墨方
任揭銀兩若如何
真否時聞應是假
可到美國又無銀
強蠻醫生又種痘
惡種牛菜食三餐
眾人看過真可惜
仍係家貧出外洋民國捨年三月初
二鐵城流口口口
Translation
General Zhao Zilong’s Whole Body was CourageI first asked the innkeeper, to get to Mexico,
Need I borrow many silver taels?
Is it true what I heard then? I think not!
He said I could go to America without any money.
Cruel barbarian doctors give us smallpox shots;
Nasty cow thistles are served three meals a day.
Everyone has seen this—how pitiful it is.
Yet our families are poor, so we cross the foreign seas.By a Wanderer from the City of Iron
March 2, 1921 -
此人金山
二十二天
知我無銀
不得住墨
諸君提防
Translation
I’ve been here at Gold Mountain
For twenty-two days.
Know that because I have no money,
I cannot live in Mexico.
Everyone be careful. -
諸君
世界金錢
Translation
For Everyone:
World Money.
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation. The Judy Yung Oral History Collection, 1975-1990.
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.
Lee, Samuel and Sam Louie. Angel Island Immigration Station Carved Poem Locator, 2021.