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English poems in Shanghai metro trains

By Xie Fang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-13 09:18

Shanghai commuters can sample British poetry on their way to work in the carriages along the metro. This is the first time the Shanghai metro has presented a foreign country's culture.

In an effort to build a cultural link between Shanghai and London, Poems on the Underground has brought four poems to the city metro two months after the London Underground began to display Chinese Tang (Dynasty) poems.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone attended the unveiling ceremony for the poems yesterday at the metro's Hengshan Road station.
The British poems, both classical and contemporary, appear in more than 600 posters in different carriages.

The four poems are "Auguries of Innocence" by William Blake, "Daffodils" by William Wordsworth, "Butterfly" by Michael Bullock and "The Blue Boat" by Kathleen Jamie.

They will be on display for two months.

A young white-collar worker surnamed Zhao, who said she is fed up with the advertising in the carriages, said it is a nice surprise to see British poems featured there.

"Reading a foreign poem is much better than staring blankly in the metro," Zhao said. "I wish to see more poems in the future."

Another Shanghai resident, who requested anonymity, also expressed his interest in reading these poems but said: "It would be better if the background of the poets were included so we could have a good understanding about them.

"And it is a shame that I see only one English verse from the poem. It would be great if they could make a bigger frame for the full poem, both in English and Chinese, to be displayed."

A metro executive surnamed Yin, who was responsible for setting up the display, said: "The size of the poster is bigger than those on the London Underground, to my knowledge.

"As the size is fixed, we had to put selected English verses in rather than the whole poem. Otherwise, the words will get much smaller, which is not good for reading. Furthermore, the majority of the audience are Chinese. I don't think it is necessary to display the whole poem in English."

Poems on the Underground was launched in 1986 by American writer Judith Chernaik, whose aim was to bring poetry to the passengers on the underground.

Two Chinese poems, "Listening to a Monk From Shu Playing the Lute" by Li Bai and "The Red Cockatoo" by Bai Juyi, have been on display on 2,000 posters in London Underground trains.