In this follow-up to his translation book, Wild Geese Sorrow: The Chinese Wall Inscriptions at Angel Island, writer Jeffrey Thomas Leong provides details of Angel Island detainee life and the experiences of his ancestors as imagined in poetry. Through the original poems of Writ, Leong asks, “Why did these detainees inscribe poems into the barrack walls?” and “How did this expression of anger and loneliness help them to survive their ordeal?”
This book incorporates actual detainee stories gleaned from interviews and archives, such as that of two young men with matching identities purchased from a greedy seller, that led to their deportation. And of Soto Shee, a pregnant mother who lost her infant son to sickness at Angel Island, attempted suicide but was rescued by officials. Leong too interrogates the desires and frustrations of his own writing process, what it’s like to translate and find empathy for that anonymous original writer. Lastly, he explores his own father’s story of adoption and silence about Angel Island, and the legacy of pain in a parent’s life.
He writes using the full range of American poetic expression from traditional forms like the villanelle and ballad, to free verse centered in language, juxtaposition and metaphor. Like in Tang poetics, each poem is crafted to reveal an emotional core, either that of a detainee or of the questing view of the translator. A careful reader is exposed to one writer’s creative process as he engages in his weighty task.
Leong’s teacher Natasha Sajé, author of Vivarium, says, “In this elegant and affecting book, we are reminded that poetry is a medium for mysteries that can’t be solved.” University of San Francisco professor and author of Topaz, Brian Komei Dempster states, “This rich, moving portrait defies erasure, the father-son connection ‘revealed, even sharper than before.’” And lastly, Teow Lim Goh, who herself imagines the women’s experience at Angel Island in her book Islanders, adds, “Leong forges new poems that seek to fill the gaps of knowledge, heritage.”
Writ aims to convey a deeper understanding of translation and provide insight into a 2nd generation immigrant’s effort to reclaim his familial history.