Last year, my original plan: to come to America,
But lack of money for passage stopped me
until early autumn.
On the Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon,
I boarded the President Lincoln.
I ate sea wind and tasted waves for more than twenty days,
But luckily, arrived unharmed.
I thought a few days and I’d be on the dock,
Little did I know of the suffering in the wood house.
The barbarians’ harsh treatment really difficult to accept,
Thinking of my family finances, a double stream of tears.
Yet, I hope to enter San Francisco soon,
Avoid living in this limbo which lengthens all worry.
免 但 感 番 點 以 幸 餐 乃 織 洋 本
在 願 觸 奴 知 為 得 風 搭 女 蚨 擬
此 早 家 苛 苦 數 平 嘗 林 會 迫 舊
間 登 境 待 困 日 安 浪 肯 牛 阻 歲
倍 三 淚 真 木 可 抵 廿 總 郎 到 來
添 藩 雙 難 樓 上 美 餘 統 哥 初 美
愁 市 流 受 囚 埠 洲 日 舟 日 秋 洲
。 ， 。 ， 。 ， 。 ， 。 ， 。 ，
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.
