Ode to Xi Shi
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
西施宁久微。
朝为越溪女，
暮作吴宫妃。
贱日岂殊众，
贵来方悟稀。
邀人傅脂粉，
不自著罗衣。
君宠益娇态，
君怜无是非。
当时浣纱伴，
莫得同车归。
持谢邻家子，
效颦安可希。
English translation
Beauty is prized all under heaven, how could Xi Shi long remain obscure?
At dawn a maiden by the stream of Yue, at evening a consort in the Wu palace.
When lowly, was she so different from the rest? Only once exalted did men see her rarity.
She has others apply her rouge and powder, she does not put on her silk robes herself.
Her lord's favor increases her charming airs, her lord's love knows no right or wrong.
Her companions of the silk-washing days may not ride with her in the same carriage.
Take this as a message to the girl next door: how can imitating a frown ever succeed?
Meaning
Radiant beauty has ever been prized above all under heaven; how could the lovely Xi Shi long remain in lowly station?
Once she was a girl washing silk beside the Yue stream; later she became the beloved consort in the palace of the King of Wu.
In her poor and humble days, was she in any way different from others? Only when she rose to honour did all realize that her loveliness was rare on earth.
How many palace ladies once powdered and painted her face; never did she need to put on her silk robes herself.
The king's favour made her manner yet more winsome; the king's love never weighed her right or wrong.
The companions who washed silk beside the Yue stream with her of old could no longer ride with her, going or coming, in the same carriage.
A word to that neighbour Dong Shi who aped her frown so blindly: to knit the brows and hope thereby to win favour is no easy thing!
Background
Read the background
Some say "Song of Xi Shi" was written in Wang Wei's youth; others date it to the Tianbao era (reign title of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, 742–756). The High Tang in which Wang Wei lived hid a political crisis beneath its splendid outer garment: wicked and cunning men held the reins of power at court, and well-born idlers rose swiftly through the favor of petticoat connections — even cockfighters and dog-racers won the emperor's grace, their worth redoubled, riding roughshod over others; while men of true talent were thrust into the lower ranks, unrecognized by anyone. And the Confucian scholar who had "read books for thirty years" had "not a foot of ribbon at his waist" and was "impoverished all his life."