An excerpt of a Chinese poem is displayed on Metro Line 2. [Photo/Xinmin.cn]

Commuters on the city’s metro trains can now appreciate Chinese and English poetry, thanks to a campaign called “Poetry on the Metro” which was launched on Tuesday, September 19.

Forty poems, both classical and contemporary, including “From You Have I Been Absent in the Spring” by William Shakespeare and “Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again” by Xu Zhimo, are displayed on different metro trains across the city.

Metro riders can also find the poems on the walls of Tiantong Road Station, West Nanjing Road Station, Xintiandi Station, Shanghai Swimming Center Station and Jinshajiang Road Station.

A wall at West Nanjing Road Station is decorated with posters of the campaign. [Photo/Xinmin.cn]

At the unveiling ceremony for the poems, Wu Xinyi, an official from Shentong Metro Group, operator of the Shanghai subway, expressed his hope to work with industrial peers to promote more Chinese and foreign poems so as to build a better public underground space filled with more cultural elements. 

Supported by the Shanghai Translators Association, the campaign is jointly held by Shanghai Metro, the British Council and the Shanghai People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. It is also an important part of the city’s first Metro Public Culture and Arts Festival which is ongoing until December.