唐 詩 Tang Shi – 300 Tang poems

西施詠
艷色天下重， 西施寧久微？
朝為越溪女， 暮作吳宮妃。
賤日豈殊眾？ 貴來方悟稀。
邀人傅脂粉， 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？

原文 17

Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,
How could Xi Shi 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 who 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.

Bynner 17