256 chapter seven
the workers would often knock on his shed
and ask him to fix a watch fix an electric clock
ask him to fix a radio
during the “cultural revolution”
he was chased from the plant
in his trunk
they’d found a tie
when he came back to work
he was still riding his old bicycle
luo jiasheng
had quietly married
without inviting anyone
and at forty-two
become a father
right that year
he died
a furnace exploded
blew a big hole in his head
scary stuff
on the day he was buried
his old lady didn’t show up
a couple of workers carried him up the hill
they said he was a little fellow
easy to carry
once he’d fixed your watch
it’d be better than new
smoke is rising from the chimney
workers standing at the workshop entrance
luo jiasheng
hasn’t come to workBy all accounts, «Luo Jiasheng» is the poem that established Yu Jian’s
reputation, and it remains one of his most cited works to this day.
Early 1980s readers had recently encountered Obscure Poetry with
its daring and sometimes overstretched metaphors, and Root-Seeking
trends that featured solemn references to Chinese history and mythol-
ogy. To them, «Luo Jiasheng» opened up a new orientation, much