Poetic public notice is a special type of public notices, which is usually seen in Chinese speaking regions. In theory, it is intended to fulfill the “poetic appellative function” as suggested by the functionalist scholar Christiane Nord (1997:43). This research investigates into this type of public notice by comparing, analyzing and discussing the Chinese poetic public notices with their English translations. The study is carried out from the perspective of functionalism in translation studies to explore the factors related to the translation methods as well as the prevalence of poetic public notice in Chinese speaking regions. Thirty-two samples of real life poetic public notices are collected and analyzed both in form and in content. By adopting a literary linguistic model to examine the English target texts, it is found that the poetic forms of the Chinese public notices are lost in translation, and some of the contents are also filtered and adapted. In the discussion part, the author attempts to interpret the translator’s choice of translation methods and the prevalence of poetic public notice in the light of the reception theory in literary studies. This perspective mainly focuses on the reader’s reception and expectation, and in this case study it is also found that the cultural tradition and experience shared by the target readers play a crucial role in the reception of the translation of poetic public notices.