cây quỳnh, cành giao
A quỳnh blossom on a giao branch — a matched pair of rare elegance; a young woman of delicate beauty.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
cây vạy ghét mực tàu ngăy
Crooked timber hates the straight ink-line — the dishonest resent the rule that shows them bent.
cây đa cũ bến đò xưa
The old banyan, the old ferry landing — the places that sheltered you once, never to be forgotten.
cây độc không trái, gái độc không con
A venomous tree bears no fruit, a venomous woman no child — the old curse reading barrenness as malice.
cò chẳng tha ngao
The snipe won't release the clam — neither side yielding, both in the fisherman's basket soon.
còn cha gót đỏ như son, một mai cha thác, gót con như chì
While father lives the child's heels are rouge-red; when he dies they turn to lead — a parent's shelter is the child's shine.
còn người còn của
While the person lives, the wealth can return — courage, for goods lost are remakeable by living hands.
còn nước còn tát
(as long as) there's water left, it can be drained out
có ... không thì bảo
..., or else!; will you just ...!?
có bệnh thì vái tứ phương
if you're ill, bow to all four directions
có bột gột nên hồ
With flour, the paste can be worked — nothing is made without its makings.
có cha có mẹ có hơn, không cha không mẹ, như đờn đứt dây
Better with father and mother than without — an orphan is a lute with snapped strings.
có chí làm quan, có gan làm giàu
Close to the English saying: “Fortune favors the brave.”.
có chí thì nên
"If you are sufficiently determined to achieve something, then you will find a way of doing so.".
có chỗ đứng và cứng chỗ đó
A cheeky motto or toast for men built on nói lái: "có chỗ đứng" — to have a standing, a secure place in life — flips into "cứng chỗ đó" — to be hard in *that* spot. One breath wishes a man both career footing and bedroom vigor; famously delivered as a pageant answer about what the ideal 21st-century man should have, to the judges' horror.
có chửa có đẻ
Conceive and you will deliver — some conditions only grow more visible; nothing stays hidden that grows.
có con nhờ con, có của nhờ của
With children, lean on children; with wealth, lean on wealth — each support serves the age that has it.
có cây dây mới leo
The vine climbs because the tree is there — every effect had its trellis; opportunity invites the climb.
có còn hơn không
Close to the English saying: “Something is better than nothing.”.
có công mài sắt, có ngày nên kim
Persistent effort will eventually succeed — keep grinding and the goal will be reached.
có cốt có vác
Take up the frame, carry the load — once begun, obliged to the finish.
có giăng phụ đèn
With moonlight, who minds the lamp — the new attachment eclipsing the faithful old one.
có gì đâu
nothing, nothing important
có học thì mới biết, có đi thì mới đến
Study to know, travel to arrive — the mind's two journeys, each requiring departure.
có khó mới có nên
No hardship, no achievement — mastery is bought with difficulty.
có khế ế chanh
Selling starfruit, talking down the lemons — every peddler dispraises the rival's basket.
có mới nới cũ
To neglect or abandon the old (friend, partner, possession) as soon as something new arrives.
có mợ thì chợ cũng đông, không mợ thì chợ cũng không không bữa nào
With the mistress the market thrives; without her it still meets daily — no one is as indispensable as they think.
có nanh có mỏ
Face to face and brow to brow — settled openly, with both parties present.
có nuôi con mới biết lòng cha mẹ
Only in raising children do you learn your parents' hearts — the debt is legible only from the paying side.
có nước thì có cá
Where there's water, there are fish — the pair never parts; one condition brings its companion.
có nước đồng nước sông mới dẫy
The river only floods where the fields already hold water — big gains grow from big capital; children rise on parents' roots.
có nếp có tẻ
Some sticky rice, some plain — children of both kinds; a family blessed with sons and daughters.
có phước có phần
Blessed means portioned — what fate allots arrives of itself.
có phước làm quan có gan làm giàu
Luck makes the mandarin, nerve makes the rich man — office is fortune's gift; wealth is courage's.
có phước tảng tài, vô phước tảng mạng
The blessed shed only money; the unblessed shed their life — survival itself is the good fortune.
có qua có lại
Give and take — a favor answered with a favor; reciprocity in kind.
có quyền thì có duyên
Power comes with charm attached — office lends its holder a strange attractiveness.
có rau ăn rau, có cháo ăn cháo
Greens if there are greens, gruel if there's gruel — contentment eating whatever the day put out.
có sức ăn có sức chịu
Eat to your strength, answer to your strength — enjoy what you can stand behind.
có sừng có mỏ
Armed with horns and a beak — formidable; not someone to be trifled with.
có thân có khổ
To have a body is to have suffering — hardship comes bundled with existence; the newborn's first cry says so.
có thịt đòi sôi
Given meat, demanding sticky rice — appetite that answers generosity with an order.
có thực mới vực được đạo
Having food (energy/money) is the prerequisite to achieve anything.
có tiếng mà không có miếng
The name without the mouthful — credited with a share that never reaches the plate.
có tiền buôn Đông, không tiền buôn Thái
With money, trade in Đông; without, trade in Thái — commerce sorted by the size of your purse.
có tiền mua tiên cũng được
Money makes things easier.
có tiền mua tiên cũng được, không tiền mua lược cũng không
With money you can buy a fairy; without it, not even a comb — cash's range, measured end to end.
có tiền tiên hay múa
With money, even the fairies dance — coin commands performances from heaven itself.
có trí làm quan, có gan làm giầu
Wits make the mandarin, nerve makes the fortune — each summit has its own entry fee.
có tài có tật
Talent travels with its flaw — the gifted carry their vices in the same hand.
có tát cạn biển Đông mới tỏ tường lòng mẹ Không trèo qua non Thái sao thấu hiểu tình cha
Only by bailing the East Sea dry is a mother's heart made plain; without climbing Mount Thái, how fathom a father's love — filial devotion at oceanic scale.
có tật giật mình
He who excuses himself, accuses himself.
có vinh có nhục
Honor comes paired with disgrace — the higher road carries both.
có ít xít nên nhiều
A little, squeezed, becomes a lot — small facts inflated by the telling.
có đi có lại
A going deserves a coming — favors keep a return schedule.
có đôi có cặp
in some promising romantic relationship into a fulfilling family
có đầu có đuôi
With a head and a tail — told whole, in proper order.
cóc bôi vôi
A toad daubed with lime — marked once, remembered everywhere it hops.
cóc đi guốc
A toad in clogs — lowly feet strapped into borrowed refinement.