Poems for…the wall

a hyphen-21 project

Poems for…one world

Here below is a list of the individual poems available in the “One World” collection. It includes over one hundred bi-lingual poems, with fifty languages represented. (There are, of course, many more than fifty languages spoken in the world and the selecting of this fifty here was not systematic, nor the result perfectly balanced. We might yet add to it). An English version is provided in each case, opposite and alongside, as if in conversation across a table.

Besides the element of difference in language, the collection introduces other frontiers for poetry to seek to cross and open. For example, there are pairs of poems by people with mental health problems, by someone with a physical disability, by someone dying, and about someone with Down’s Syndrome. Further, since the “One World” collection was put together, the first and last of these pairs have become full collections in their own right. “Poems for…self at sea” and “Poems for…bridges to learning disability” were launched in Bristol in 2015 and are available separately on this website.

Also included in “Poems for…one world” is a poem called “These are the Hands” by Michael Rosen, celebrating the UK’s National Health Service. In 2008, the NHS commissioned him to write the poem to mark its 60th “birthday” of that year. He gave his permission for me to format and publish the poem as part of this project too, and also to have it translated into various other languages, each one spoken by people who come to the NHS for help, and/or who work for it – Greek, Turkish, Punjabi, Somali. You can find the translations scattered through the list below, in alphabetical order according to language.

For an idea of how the poems look, click on the examples below and they will expand onscreen :

Downloading our poems is restricted to logged in users

You can download all the poems on this site for free. All we ask is that you register and let us know how you’ll be using the poems.

All the poems below are in pdf. To view and download them. you will need to have installed Adobe Reader, part of the Adobe Acrobat package. Installation of the Reader is free. See https://get.adobe.com/reader/

There are too many poems in this collection to fit into one zip folder. They take up too much memory (the poems are also saved at high resolution, to allow for enlargement, and this adds to the memory they use). So I have divided them into four groups, listed in alphabetical order of language. Click on the letters :

Languages A-E ;

Languages E-K ;

Languages L-R ;

Languages R-Z.

Alternatively, here below is the full list of individual poems included in the collection. They too are set out in alphabetical order of language. In each case, click on the pdf symbol in the column on the right to view and/or download :

Title	Poet	Language
Ladybird	Ingrid Jonker	Afrikaans
The dog	Dedaj	Albanian
Exile	Guemar	Algerian (French)
Plea	Rotenberg	Austrian
from Exile	Nasser	Arabic
Sparrows	Youssef	Arabic
from If I must worship a god	Monzer Masri	Arabic (Syrian)
Prison	Barghouti	Arabic (Palestinian)
On a Steamer	Valzhyna Mort	Belarusian
David Widgery	Naz	Bengali
Too long I’ve wandered	Tagore	Bengali
Stalagtites	Lyubomir Nikolov	Bulgarian
from Fruit Diet	Radulova	Bulgarian
A Letter for Lovers and Haters	Ma Ei	Burmese
Clue	Maung Thein Zaw	Burmese
Hill-space	Ko Zaw Oo	Burmese
Myitkyina Jail, 2010	Zargana	Burmese
Panning for alluvial gold	Ko Ko Thett	Burmese
Pitch for a Playful Mind	Eaindra	Burmese
Maybe I am blind	Gu Cheng	Chinese (Mandarin)
Question in the mountains	Li Bai	Chinese (Mandarin)
In the mountains	Yang lian	Chinese (Mandarin)
Roses	Marangou	Cypriot (Greek)
The Trees	Ayshe Gul	Cypriot (Turkish)
Fate	Blatny	Czech
Meeting in a lift	Holan	Czech
Lacrima	Pia Tafdrup	Danish
The mother the water	Kopland	Dutch
These are the hands	Michael Rosen	English
Who am I ?	Amrit Dhadwal	English/Punjabi
Who do you think you are ?	Farzana Choudhury	English
Kim and the Sea-gulls	Rogan Wolf	English
Kim and the nasty woman	Rogan Wolf	English
Dying	Phil Poole	English
Death’s Compliment	Phil Poole	English
Ophelia in London	Janey Antoniou	English
Hotel Gordon	Sarah Wardle	English
Tower Bridge	David Morris	English
Vinopolis	David Morris	English
from My mother, her tongue	Stephen Watts	English
from Song for my daughter	Stephen Watts	English
Waiting	Rose Bromberg	English (Spanish tr.)
A last cloud	Jaan Kaplinski	Estonian
Though your country	Juhan Liiv	Estonian
Libation	Grace Tamakloe	Ewe
The sea within us…	Jean-Michel Maulpoix	French
I write so I can travel	Claudine Bertrand	French (Canadian)
In her dreams…	Vénus Khoury-Ghata	French (Lebanese)
Lightness	Bateman	Gaelic
Making butter	MacNeacail	Gaelic
How was it ?	Michael Krüger	German
What the slowcoach says	Michael Krüger	German
The Panther	Rainer Maria Rilke	German
Morning	Ritsos	Greek
These are the hands	Spyridoula Politi (transl)	Greek
I have recalled…	Ra’hel Bluwstein	Hebrew
They call me	Yehuda Amichai	Hebrew
Constantly	Milan	Hindi
Home	Rana	Hindi
Loneliness	Saxena	Hindi
Black Tears	Vidya Misra	Hindi
Daily I change	Gomori	Hungarian
On the back of a photograph	Pilinszky	Hungarian
Only you should read my poems	Yozsef	Hungarian
from I dance Ala-Igbo	Chikwendu Anyanwu	Igbo
Alda Merini	Alda Merini	Italian
September 2001…	Antonella Anedda	Italian
Behind the angelic evening	Dino Campana	Italian
from Dishevelled Hair 1	Akiko Yosano	Japanese
from Dishevelled Hair 2	Akiko Yosano	Japanese
A Report	Kenji Miyazawa	Japanese
Acceptance	Hardi	Kurdish
And men go forth	Saint Augustine	Latin
The black time	Belsevica	Latvian
Wolf One-eye…	Juris Kronbergs	Latvian
from The history of the train	Alisanka	Lithuanian
Island Agenda	Azzopardi	Maltese
from Nudity 10…	Ebrahimi	Persian
Kindness embodied	Khoi	Persian
Yet another day	Vajdi	Persian
The Encounter	Czeslaw Milosz	Polish
Station lights	Sommer	Polish
The peacock in Walpole Park	Chandan	Punjabi
After listening to Beethoven’s fifth	Tirmazi	Punjabi
These are the hands	Amarjit Chandan (transl)	Punjabi (Arabo-Urdu)
These are the hands	Amarjit Chandan (transl)	Punjabi (Gurmaki)
A stop	Ursu	Romanian
Shudder of a daisy	Gennady Aygi	Russian
There were eyes	Osip Mandelstam	Russian
On the great blue deep	Robert Alan Jamieson	Shetlandic
Tomorrow can be too late	Peteraj	Slovakian
How the hills	Salamun	Slovenian
Evening	Simonovic	Slovenian
Cuvivi	Carla Badillo Coronado	Spanish (Ecuador)
The Balcony	Frederico García Lorca	Spanish
from Exile	Pablo Neruda	Spanish (Chile)
Counterparts	Octavio Paz	Spanish (Mexican)
Green Shoes	Antonieta Villamil	Spanish (Colombia)
Samadoon	Cabdulqaadir Axmed	Somali
Has Love…	Maxamed Warsame	Somali
from Central London	Abdullahi Botan Hassan	Somali
These are the hands	Abdullahi Botan Hassan (transl)	Somali
The Earthworm	Harry Edmund Martinson	Swedish
Four Full Moons…	Devadacchan	Tamil
Swing	Malathy Maitri	Tamil
Our Path	Reesom Haile	Tigrinya
Love	Mevlut Ceylan	Turkish
These are the hands	Mevlut Ceylan	Turkish
24-Sep-45	Nazim Hikmet	Turkish
There was a Bridge	Serhiy Zhadan	Ukrainian
Monsoon Moments	Nasir Kazmi	Urdu
On the Road	Ho Chi Minh	Vietnamese
A Seed	Kate Bosse-Griffiths	Welsh
I feel the string has broken…	Diä!kwain	/Xam

What People Have Said

Lyubo Nikolov, Bulgarian poet, contributed poem to the ‘Poems for…one world ‘ collection:

“Best of luck in your noble task.”

Chikwendụ Anyanwụ, Igbo poet and Catholic priest, contributed work to the “Poems for…one world” collection:

“Your idea is a very noble one.”

Dr S. E-L, Clinical Psychologist, NHS Traumatic Stress Counselling Service, London :

“…About half our patients come from other countries, generally as refugees fleeing torture and persecution…Coming into contact with poetry in their own language whilst waiting, is a really positive way of helping non-English speakers feel a sense of welcome and inclusion. Many thanks.”

Hana Amichai, widow of Yehuda Amichai, Hebrew poet whose work appears in ‘Poems for…one world’ :

“It is a beautiful and very important project, I am glad that Amichai’s poem is included.”

Selima Hill, poet, contributed work to two of the project’s collections.:

“…Congratulations to you too ! ( I Like the idea of making waiting rooms “less lonely”) PS. Another place where people wait is stations…”

David Hart, Poet, commissioned and edited 50 poems for the ‘Poems for…Waiting’ collection, contributed one of his own:

“The pack of poems has come, Rogan, and it’s an excellent piece of work again ; there really has been nothing like these packs before. We have the chance here to open people’s lives to each other.”

Gareth Evans, teaching in a school in Shanghai:

”…it seems to be an important thing, at least to me, in an international setting, to know that the poem-posters on my classroom wall are also on walls around the world.”

Sue Eardley, Mayday University Hospital, Croydon :

“The poems are… being changed around regularly, and patients often comment on them in passing….Thank you again for the initiative, and please keep us informed of any new schemes, or if there is a way we can encourage other organisations to benefit from this great idea.”

Caroline Carver, poet, contributed work to the ‘Poems for…waiting” collection:

“It is good news that the NHS are using the poems so well, and to know they are reaching the right audiences.”

Antjie Krog, South African poet and translator, contributed work to the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection:

“They arrived!!!! the posters. and what a treasure, my head is bristling with ideas…thank you so so so much.”

Andrea Lee, Physiotherapy Receptionist, Warminster Community Hospital, Wiltshire:

“I have received the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection and I am totally delighted with them…Some of the scripts are beautiful in their own right, even without the translations. One of the most striking aspects is that no matter what language and ethnic background, our hopes, feelings and dreams are the same. Thank you once again.”

Menna Elfyn, poet, contributed work to ‘Poems for…waiting‘ collection:

“It is good to know that the poems are appreciated widely…and that in these difficult times poetry still connects people together.”

Sir Michael Jay, Permanent Under-Secretary of State, the UK Foreign Office, 2002-2006 :

“Diversity is an excellent theme, and especially relevant to the challenges we all currently face to build a cohesive society. We would like a set of the poems to use at appropriate FCO events…”

Eliot Weinberger, US, translator of Octavio Paz, whose work appears in the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection:

“I’m sure that Octavio would have been very moved to know that his poem was appearing in these kinds of public spaces…good luck with this excellent project.”

Psychology Dept, Scunthorpe:

“One thing that has been extremely interesting is…our clients have begun to post their own poems on the wall. Some are poems that mean something to them and some are written by the clients themselves.”

The Royal College of Nursing, from their Bulletin, June 15th , 2011 :

“The RCN is backing this project which supplies poems free of charge for use in hospitals and health centres up and down the country.”

Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the UK National Health Service, 2010-2014 :

“Your initiative has made a valuable contribution to making NHS waiting rooms a more welcoming and sensitive environment for patients and the series of poems celebrating diversity has been particularly well received.”

Dr. Charles Cantaloupo, Penn State University, USA, translator of Reesom Haile, Tigrinya poet, whose work appears in the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection :

“As the translator, I authorize you, please, to go ahead. I hope this is enough since your project is great and should not be held up a second more than necessary.”

The Right Hon Tessa Jowell, Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, 2001-2007:

“I think this is a wonderful project, giving people something meaningful and personal to consider, in what can be an anxious place.”

School Librarian, King Fahad Academy:

“Thank you so much – we love them!…I am planning to laminate all the poems, and have a Poem of the Week in a prominent place in both the boy’s and girl’s schools.”

Tomaž Šalamun, poet, Slovenia, contributed work to the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection:

“I’m very honoured and delighted you have chosen my poem. Very grateful for your marvellous idea.”

Mourid Barghouti, Palestinian poet, Cairo, contributed work to ‘Poems for…one world’ collection:

“I am delighted to be part of your creative and beautiful project.”

Juris Kronbergs, Latvian poet, editor and translator, contributed work to the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection:

“I am happy and proud to take part in your project ! It’s a wonderful way of making poetry useful in society, outside the groups of afficionados, libraries and universities !”

Jayne Greathead, poet, contributed work to ‘Poems for…waiting’ collection:

“It’s a lovely feeling to know my poem has been used in this way.”

BB, NHS cancer patient, London, 2013 :

“I just want to tell you that in 1997 I read and copied one of your poems, “The Stream of Life” [by Tagore] in the waiting room in Hammersmith Gaeni dept. I had just finished chemo for ovarian cancer. I still find this poem inspiring and think displaying poems is a great idea, especially in health settings. I plan to take them with me on retreat. Thanks.”

MIND worker in Camden, London:

“I love reading the poems which are displayed in the reception area at work. I like the variety and I like taking a moment to be still and reflective whilst reading the poems. My current favourite has been photocopied so I can read it from my desk ! It’s a really worthwhile venture.”

William Radice, writer and academic, translator of Rabindranath Tagore, whose work is reproduced in ‘Poems for …one world’ :

“Wonderful to see this and I do congratulate you on a really excellent project. It has huge potential.”

Annette Duncan, Programme Area Leader, ESOL 16-18 Courses, Lewisham College:

“You kindly sent me a set of the bilingual poems last year…The poems proved very useful classroom materials and we went on to study other poems. The result is a book of poems, written by the students themselves, in 2 languages – their mother tongue and English. They wrote some truly amazing poems and really enjoyed the process as well as the finished product…”

Lakshmi Holström, translator of two Tamil poems in the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection:

“The thrill is in seeing Tamil as part of a spectrum of languages, each making its own wonderful contribution …[Poems for…the wall] is an impressive and beautiful project, which should continue to grow.”

Catherine Maloney, Lewisham College:

“Thank you, the poems are wonderful ! We will put them up for staff and students to enjoy and think about…I think your collection will inspire staff and students alike.”

Fiona Sampson, poet and editor, helped select ten bilingual poems celebrating the EU Enlargement of 2004:

“Your idea’s a wonderful one, crystallizing many of the most interesting initiatives in contemporary literature/ promotion practice. But, more than this, it’s also a deeply human, very profound return to the meaning of poetry. I’m honoured to have been part of it.”

Deputy Chief Exec, Yarrow Housing:

“Since our clients have learning disabilities, for some the written word is not accessible. However, some clients have been very taken with the poems, selecting their favourites and saying how good they are.”

UA Fanthorpe, poet, contributed work to the ‘Poems for…waiting’ collection:

“I hope that the project continues to go from strength to strength…and to encourage people to read poetry and to feel better at the same time is indeed a worthwhile task – specially perhaps in times like these.”

Sir Andrew Motion, FRSL, Poet Laureate 1999-2009, launched the ‘Poems for…one world’ collection and later our first website. Also contributed a poem :

I greatly admire what you’re doing…and am delighted that the NHS has supported you so well…[This] is an inspired scheme…I’ve been delighted to be part of it….”

Maureen Woolf, Counsellor, North Warwickshire NHS Trust:

“I have used some of the sample of poems you have already sent me for some group work with older people who have depression, anxiety, memory loss or other difficulties. The overall response has been very favourable.”

Michael Rosen, UK Children’s Poet Laureate 2007-2009 – his poem celebrating the NHS is included in the “Poems for…one world” collection:

“I think that this is a stimulating, exciting and important project… Many, many thanks … I am excited and delighted that my poem is appearing in several languages [here]. It shows that we can talk to each other just as we try to care for each other… I think the project needs all the help it can find.”

Susan Brown, Chair, “Arts for Health”, Milton Keynes :

“We now have poems in more than 85% of GP surgeries in Milton Keynes….So, thank you for sending us all those [poem-posters]. I hope you agree, it has been a success story and we are delighted with the results.”

Susan Hillyard, Buenos Aires, Argentina, teacher trainer :

Thank you for your poems and for putting them up so generously on the site. I am training 20 teachers to teach English through Drama in Special Education all over the city of Buenos Aires. We are working in very poor conditions without resources and making all our own materials. I am passing your site on to my teachers and am sure they will find some interesting materials…

TN, Governor, HM Prison, Grendon and Springhill :

“Are you still supplying Poems for…the wall ? We would be interested in a pack, as previous poems have been much appreciated by prisoners, staff and visitors to the prison.”

MV Prescott, Consultant in A & E Medicine, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital NHS Trust:

“I am absolutely delighted with the pack and will be commencing a project in the A & E Department at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to display these on a rotating basis.”

Tanya Plutzik, widow of Hyam Plutzik, who contributed work to the ‘Poems for…all ages‘ collection:

This is a wonderful idea. It will surely be widely read and will bring comfort and support to many. Thank you for including my husband’s poem ; he would have been delighted to be part of the collection.”

JP, Hospice Visitor :

“Dear Mr Wolf, I have recently seen a “Poems for…the wall” presentation folder within a palliative care setting which provided a great source of comfort for many visitors. May I take this opportunity to thank you and all the contributors. Are these poems available for other health and social care settings?”

Assistant Head of School, Kent:

“Somehow this lovely set of poems came into my hands; I am delighted with them and am displaying them outside my classroom for maximum impact. I also intend to use them in lessons and get younger students to illustrate as appropriate.”