On the first day of January,

eighteen ninety-two,

they opened Ellis Island and they let the people through.

And the first to cross the thresh-old of the isle of hope and tears was Annie Moore from Ireland who was all of fifteen years.

Isle of hope, 

isle of tears,

isle of freedom,

isle of fears.

But it’s not the isle I left behind.

That isle of hunger,

isle of pain,

isle you’ll never see again,

but the isle of home is always on your mind.

In her little bag she carried all her past and history,

and her dreams for the future in the land of liberty.

And courage is the passport when your old world disappears,

‘cause there’s no future in the past when you’re fifteen years.

When they closed down Ellis Island in nineteen forty-three,

Seventeen million people had come there for sanctuary.

And in spring-time when I came here and I stepped onto its piers,

I thought of how it must have been when you’re only fifteen years.

 

一八九二年一月一日

紐約愛麗絲島的門戶開放，人們陸續通關進入美國

首位踏上希望與眼淚之島，是愛爾蘭少女安妮摩爾，當時年僅十五歲

希望之島

也是眼淚之島

自由之島

也是恐懼之島

但不會是妳離去的那座島嶼

那座飽受饑荒與苦痛的島嶼

那座妳永世將不再見的島嶼

但家鄉之島將永存在妳心頭

她將過去與回憶全放進她的小行李

她將未來的夢想全投靠在自由之地

當已逝的世界不再，勇氣成了妳出走的盾牌

只因那兒沒有未來，當妳年僅十五歲

一九四三年，紐約愛麗絲島的門戶關閉

共一千七百萬人曾經搭船至此登岸避難

春暖花開之時我來到這裡，杵在碼頭邊

不禁遙想當時年僅十五歲的妳

 

（這首歌曲講的是愛爾蘭少女為逃離本國饑荒而移民至美國的歷史故事）