Translated from Chinese by Jeffrey Thomas Leong
Leaving behind wife and child,
I’ve experienced heavy seas.
Don’t know how much wind and frost I’ve endured.
Because my family was poor, I sought the precious
white jade.
Separated from relatives and friends,
I drifted about, 10,000 li.
It’s difficult to calculate suffering in one slice
of rain and snow,
All due to a purse empty of weighty green coin.
難 萬 別 不 重 拋
計 里 親 知 洋 妻
都 捱 飄 朋 袛 受 歷 子
緣 一 流 ，為 幾 盡 ，
囊 切 ， 家 多 ，
澀 雨 貧 風
重 雪 求 霜
青 ， 白 ，
蚨 璧
。 ；
Jeffrey Thomas Leong
Jeffrey Thomas Leong is an American poet and writer. For two decades, he worked as a public health administrator and attorney for the City of San Francisco. He earned his MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and while there, began a project to translate the Chinese wall poems at the Angel Island Immigration Station. His book of translations, Wild Geese Sorrow, was published by Calypso Editions in 2018. Jeff’s new chapbookWrit from Eastwind Books of Berkeley fully imagines the Angel Island detainee experience. He lives with his wife and daughter near Oakland, CA.
