objectification and the long-short line 255lieve....» (ϡ㽕Ⳍֵ...., 1979), recalls the early Bei Dao’s best-known
line (I—don’t—be—lieve!) and his imagery, in lines like these:^9
Don’t believe that star
when it says it’s the eye of loveand
Don’t believe my strong hands
will steady the little boat of loveA completely different voice emerges in «Luo Jiasheng» (㔫ᆊ⫳,
1982), which stands at the beginning of Yu Jian’s original develop-
ment. Even though this poem explicitly features the Cultural Revolu-
tion, it could hardly be farther removed from his earliest work:^10
«Luo Jiasheng»every day he’d ride an old bicycle
and come to work
as smoke was rising from the chimneycruise past the office buildings
cruise past the workshop
cruise past the warehouse walls
and step inside that little wooden makeshift shedworkers standing at the workshop entrance
would see him and say
luo jiasheng’s hereno one knew who he was
no one asked him who he was
the whole plant just called him luo jiasheng(^9) Mang Ke 1988: 8-11, Bei Dao 1987: 21-24, first published in Today 1 (1978):
28-30 and 3 (1979): 37-40, respectively; Bei Dao 1987: 25-26, first published in To-
day 1 (1978): 31-32; Yu Jian 2004a: 14-15.
(^10) Yu Jian 2004a: 36-37. Whereas all other editions have a stanza division be-
tween tie and when, the Collected Works edition does not. The functionality of stanza
divisions in the poem suggests that this is a misprint.