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Instead of remaining a citizen of China, I willingly became an ox.

I intended to come to America to earn a living.

The western styled building are lofty; but I have not the luck to live in them.

How was anyone to know that my dwelling place would be a prison.

Poem Translations Courtesy of University of Washington Press.  "Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940", ISBN 0-295-97109-6.

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