<Header>
<Author: 王維>
<Title: 西施詠>
<Format: 五言古詩>
<Year: 1929>
<BookName: The Jade Mountain: A Chinese Anthology>
<Translator: Witter Bynner>
<TranslatedTitle: THE BEAUTIFUL HSI SHIH>
<BookPage: 200-201>
<UsedPage: 2>
<Feature: 0>
<End Header>
<Poem>
豔色天下重，
西施寧久微。
朝仍越溪女，
暮作吳宮妃。
賤日豈殊衆，
貴來方悟稀。
邀人傅香粉，
不自著羅衣。
君寵益嬌態，
君憐無是非。
當時浣紗伴，
莫得同車歸。
持謝鄰家子，
效顰安可希。
<End Poem>
<Translation>
Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,
How could Hsi Shih remain humbly at home?—
Washing clothes at dawn by a southern lake—
And that evening a great lady in a palace of the north:
Lowly one day, no different from the others,
The next day exalted, everyone praising her.
No more would her own hands powder her face
Or arrange on her shoulders a silken robe.
And the more the King loved her, the lovelier she looked,
Blinding him away from wisdom. 
... Girls wto had once washed silk beside her
Were kept at a distance from her chariot.
And none of the girls in her neighbours' houses
By pursing their brows could copy her beauty.
<End Translation>