The Resonance of the Chinese Poetry on Walls on
Angel Island
Introduction
Waiting idly in uncertain detainment, the Chinese immigrants plagued by
anxiety, desperation, and fear expressed their unsettling emotions through
poetry written or carved into the barrack walls that confined them. Because
of the ordeal of the immigration and detention, the poems recorded the optimistic
response to their excursion to the "Golden Mountain," missing
family and friends left behind at home, and their resentment and humiliation
at the inhospitality and inhumane treatment the Americans granted them.
The translations of the engraved poems tired to
kept the renditions as literal as possible without losing the original flavor.
However, oftentimes there are no adequate English substitutes for certain
Chinese characters where the interpreter's process of poetic translation
involved a certain compromise. Therefore, "the form is oftentimes compromised
in order to retain the content" as the first priority of the historians
(Lai 31). This proves more difficult with Chinese vernacular expression
that frequently resulted in non-idiomatic terms and phrases in English,
and misinterpretations occur due to language and cultural barriers.
