Listen to this article五言古詩
王維
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？
Five-character-quatrain
Wang Wei
THE BEAUTIFUL XI SHI
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.
