| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | The Beautiful Hsi-Shih | | By Witter Bynner and Kiang Kung-hu, trans. |
| | From “Poems by Wang Wei”
From the Chinese
SINCE beauty is honored all over the empire, | |
| How could Hsi-shih remain humbly at home? | |
| At dawn washing clothes by a lake in Yueh; | |
| At dusk in the Palace of Wu, a great lady! | |
| Poor, no rarer than the others— | 5 |
| Exalted, everyone praising her rareness. | |
| But above all honors, the honor was hers | |
| Of blinding with passion an emperor’s reason. | |
| Girls who had once washed silk beside her | |
| Now were ordered away from her carriage…. | 10 |
| Ask them, in her neighbors’ houses, | |
| If by wrinkling their brows they can copy her beauty. | | | | |
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