cưỡi đầu voi
Riding the elephant's head — perched on the most powerful seat.
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cưỡi đầu voi dữ
Riding the head of a rogue elephant — mastery of what may bolt at any breath.
cạn nước tới cái
When the water drains, the fish traps show — wait for events to bottom out and act on what appears.
cạp đất mà ăn
impoverished; impecunious; destitute
cả gió tắt đuốc
Criticism or pressure that is too harsh snuffs out motivation instead of correcting it.
cả giận, mất khôn
losing temper will lead to a lapse in judgment
cả nhà
(phrase) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see cả, nhà.
cải cựu tòng tân
Casting off the old to follow the new — reforming; leaving outdated ways for modern ones.
cải lão hoàn đồng
To restore the old to youth — rejuvenating; giving something fresh vigor and a second spring.
cải tà quy chính
to switch from sin to the right path; to mend one's ways; to turn over a new leaf
cấm chợ ngăn sông
Closing the markets and barring the rivers — strangling trade and movement with blockades and decrees.
cầm cân nảy mực
Holding the scales and snapping the ink-line — to arbitrate; to be the one who sets the fair standard.
cầm cân thăng bằng
Holding the scales level — keeping to strict fairness in all dealings.
cầm dầu có hòng ướt tay
Handle oil and your hands will glisten — manage money or goods long enough and some rubs off; custody breeds seepage.
cầm khỉ một ngày, biết khỉ múa
Keep a monkey a day and you've seen its dances — proximity teaches character quickly.
cầm lửa đốt giời
Using flesh to crush people — bulk, or numbers, as the whole argument.
cầm đèn chạy trước ô tô
to jump the gun, to get ahead of oneself
cần bất như chuyên
Diligence is less than constancy — bursts of zeal lose to steady application.
cần lời giải thích
I need explanation; this needs explanation
cầu danh bất cầu lợi
Seeking fame, disclaiming profit — a boast, since fame and profit travel together.
cầu sung vừa đủ xài
to offer certain fruits during Tết as a way to wish for fortune
cầu sương điếm cỏ
Frosty bridges and grass-hut shelters — a drifting, roofless life on the road.
cầu tàu vươn ra biển
jetty extending into the sea
cầu được ước thấy
the one getting what they want
cầy thuê quốc mướn
Pointing at stags and gibbons — directions offered to every horizon but the useful one.
cẩn tắc vô ưu
Close to the English saying: “Harm watch is harm catch.”.
cẩn tắc vô ưu, vô áy náy
better safe than sorry
cẩu lương
“Dog food” — public displays of affection force-fed to the single people watching.
cận thủy tri ngư, cận lâm thức điểu
Near water you learn fish; near forest you learn birds — knowledge grows where you live.
cậu cai nói dấu lông gà, cổ tay đeo nhẫn gọi là cậu cai. Ba năm được một chuyến sai, áo ngắn đi mượn, quần dài đi thuê
Master Cai sports a feather in his hat and a ring on his wrist — one errand in three years, the short coat borrowed and the long trousers hired — colonial petty rank, dressed entirely in loans.
cắm sào đợi nước
Pole planted, waiting for the tide — paused mid-river until conditions turn.
cắm sừng
to cuckold (one's husband)/cuckquean (one's wife); to put horns on (one's spouse); to be unfaithful to (one's spouse)
cắm đầu cắm cổ
Head down, neck down — rushing headlong, or slogging away without once looking up.
cắn răng, chằn con mắt
Teeth clenched, eyes stretched — enduring with the jaw shut and the gaze forced open.
cắt cổ con nít
Throat-cutting rates — extortionate, daylight-robbery pricing.
cắt dây bầu dây bí, chẳng ai cắt dây chị em
Cut the gourd vine, cut the squash vine — no one cuts the vine between sisters — kinship is the one uncuttable creeper.
cặp bài trùng
perfect pair; perfect match
cọc tìm trâu
The stake goes looking for the buffalo — things done backwards, against the natural order.
cố cùng liều thân
Cornered into staking one's very life — desperate, with nothing left to lose.
cố ư trung tất hình ư ngoại
What is stored within must show without — the inside writes itself on the face.
cốt nhục tương tàn
Flesh and bone devouring each other — kin turned on kin.
cổ kim
past and present; then and now
cổ tay em trắng như ngà, con mắt em liếc như là dao cau. Miệng cười như thể hoa ngâu, cái khăn đội đầu như thể hoa sen
Your wrist white as ivory, your glance a slicing areca knife, your smile a ngâu blossom, your headscarf a lotus — the inventory of infatuation.
cộng tươi
Cộng tươi — a fresh-faced heartthrob; a boy so clean-cut he looks factory-new.
cột đổ nhà xiêu
Pillars down, house aslant — a family estate in collapse.
cờ bạc là bác thằng bần Cửa nhà bán hết, tra chân vào cùm
Gambling is Brother Poverty's own uncle — the house sold off, and your feet in the stocks — the definitive verse against cards and dice.
cờ bạc sanh trộm cướp
Gambling breeds thieving — losses deep enough turn hands crooked.
cờ bạc về sáng
Gambling turns at dawn — the table's luck arrives when the lamps burn out; ruin keeps late hours.
cờ gian bạc lận
Cheating chess and crooked cards — games rigged to empty the other man's purse.
cờ tay ai người ấy phất, đèn nhà ai nhà ấy rạng
Whoever holds the flag waves it; whoever's house the lamp is in, it brightens — each to their own charge and glory.
cờ về tay ai nấy phất
Whoever holds the flag waves it — authority belongs to the hand it lands in.
cờ đến tay
The flag come to your hand — the moment of authority arrived; wave it.
cục tạ
Affectionately, one’s ball-and-chain — a partner jokingly called a heavy burden.
của chìm của nổi
Sunken wealth and floating wealth — assets seen and unseen; the visible fortune and the buried one.
của chẳng ngon chớ nào lỗ miệng
The gift needn't be delicious to honor the mouth — devotion, not delicacy, gives the offering its worth.
của chẳng ngon nhiều con cũng hết
Plain food vanishes where children are many — hungry numbers make any dish precious.
của chồng công vợ
The husband's earnings, the wife's keeping — property is his making and her minding, and both have the use of it.
của gối đầu bà già
Wealth under an old woman's pillow — savings kept where no saving is.
của là nuốm ruột
Property is a knot of one's gut — people grieve money as flesh; some die of the grieving.
của người phúc ta
Their goods, our blessing — profiting from what cost us nothing.