r/Poetry • u/Tran-shi • 9d ago
[POEM]Washing Machine
We are Transhi, a Taiwan-based literary group focused on translation. Our mission is to translate contemporary Taiwanese poetry into foreign languages—including English—to share these voices with a wider audience. We want to bring you the living pulse of Taiwanese literature as it unfolds, which is why we primarily feature recent works by emerging and younger poets.
While we have been translating for some time now, we’ve never shared our work with international readers (yes, that’s you!)—until today. This marks our very first post. Moving forward, we plan to introduce one piece each week alongside our commentary and reflections.
Let's start.
Commentary:
The author is a Taipei-based poet whose work often engages with social issues.
In this poem, the washing machine serves as an extended metaphor for prison, likening an inmate serving time to soiled clothing being washed clean. Fabrics are inherently clean—they become dirty only through accidental stains. The poet suggests that human beings are no different. Time spent incarcerated is rendered as the rhythmic alternation of day and night, which is then reimagined as a cradle rocked by a mother. This rhetorical shift invites readers to look beyond the offense and contemplate the incarcerated individual's upbringing and relationships: even those convicted of heinous crimes were once innocent children in the eyes of their parents. By addressing crime and punishment with such deft nuance, the poem prompts us to reconsider how criminals are made and how justice is administered.
That’s all for this post. See you next time!
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