Poems and Pain

More than 130 anonymous poems remain etched on the walls of Angel Island’s detention barracks, where some 175,000 Chinese immigrants were held for weeks, even months, from 1910 to 1940. The poetry, rediscovered in the 1970s, was translated and preserved by the History of Chinese Detained on Island project and published in “Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940.” (University of Washington Press)

This place is called an island of immortals,

When, in fact, this mountain wilderness is a prison.

Once you see the open net, why throw yourself in?

It is only because of empty pockets I can do nothing else.

Leaving behind my writing brush and removing my sword, I came to America.

Who was to know two streams of tears would flow upon arriving here?

If there comes a day when I will have attained my ambition and become successful,

I will certainly behead the barbarians and spare not a single blade of grass.

Today is the last day of winter,

Tomorrow morning is the vernal equinox.

One year’s prospects have changed to another.

Sadness kills the person in the wooden building.