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If the nuances of the different translations appeal to you, Douglas Hofstadter's "Le Ton beau de Marot" is a must-read.
Chinese really is well-suited to poetry. This carries over into song lyrics, even for pop songs. Here are two that I really like:

* Tian Mi Mi by Teresa Teng - http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/teresa_teng/tian_mi_mi.ht... - which includes a line "your smile is like flowers opening in the spring wind"

* Sky by Faye Wong - http://www.chinasmack.com/2012/more/chinese-pop-songs/sky-by... - one of many beautiful lines translates as "The sky. Piled with layers and layers of longing."

There are certainly great lyricists in English, but the two songs I linked above were both massive popular hits. Teresa Teng and Faye Wong during their respective heydays are probably best compared with people like Madonna in the 80s/90s or Beyonce today (in terms of popularity, media attention, etc.). Is there anyone in mainstream pop music writing lyrics as beautiful as the ones I linked above?

(Fun side note: Faye Wong is a huge admirer of Teresa Teng, and has a great cover album of Teng's songs called Decadent Sounds of Faye. The arrangements of these songs are great and Faye Wong sings them beautifully).

I like Teresa Teng's music a lot, but I'm not sure the lyrics are uniquely poetic. And most of her songs also have Japanese versions, despite the two languages having little in common besides a lot of lexical borrowings.
There are videos of Teng singing Michael Jackson and Lionel Ritchie out there. Cause this is thriller!
I wonder if the word duanming was the origin for the name of Short-Round in Indiana Jones.
That's a little more sophistication than I'm willing to credit Spielberg and Lucas, especially given the rest of that film.
In military terms, a short round is a projectile that falls short of the target, particularly if enough so as to harm one's own troops. The book on which Full Metal Jacket was based had a lieutenant nicknamed Short Round for his stature.
Well, I found the source, was a doggie -

"Like Indiana Jones and Willie Scott, the character is named after a pet dog: Short Round was the dog of the film's writers, Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck."