The Jade Mountain/The Beautiful Hsi Shih
THE BEAUTIFUL HSI SHIH
Since beauty is honoured all over the Empire,How could Hsi Shih 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 faceOr 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 herWere kept at a distance from her chariot.And none of the girls in her neighbours' housesBy pursing their brows could copy her beauty.
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