西施咏(经典古诗英译)

这是一首来自大诗人王维的诗，这是一首借咏西施，以喻为人的诗。《西施咏》取材于历史人物，借古讽今。
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.