how to pass scripts to python -c

[Daniel Kramer]

what are the formatting rules to passing python commands to the python
command line?  I've tried the following, which works:

echo hello | python  -c "import sys; print sys.stdin.read()[:4]"

I'm actually trying to shell out of another scripting lang that's not
very good at string parsing to have python do some work.. the only
problem is this other lang doesn't like the ";" in my python command
string and fails.  Is there another notation I can use on a single
line to tell python that there is a line break?

I tried:
echo hello | python  -c "import sys\n print sys.stdin.read()[:4]"

but that doesn't work
 
any suggestions? 

thanks 

daniel