cầm khỉ một ngày, biết khỉ múa
Keep a monkey a day and you've seen its dances — proximity teaches character quickly.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
cầm lấy 2 tỷ
The melodrama pay-off line — "take the two billion (and stay away from my child)" — lifted from romance-drama break-up scenes and remixed with scrambled word order for comedy ("take my daughter and stay away from the two billion").
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 chuột
To leave your character grinding unattended — origin: MMO players literally wedging a toothpick into the mouse button so it kept clicking overnight.
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.
cắt lỗ
To cut the loss — sell a losing position to stop the bleeding; the discipline everyone preaches and nobody enjoys.
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.
của thiên giả địa
Heaven's goods return to earth — ill-got wealth finds its way back out.
của thiên, trả địa
Close to the English saying: “Ill gotten, ill spent. (Mr. B Lam).”.
của thế gian, ai khôn ngoan thì đặng
The world's goods go to the clever — wealth circulates, and wit is the net that catches it passing.
của vắn mặt dài
Goods run short, faces stay long — the feast ends, the acquaintance doesn't; spend as if you'll meet again.
của ít lòng nhiều
possessing little and not giving any significant gifts, but being very warm-hearted instead
của đổ mà hốt
Scooping up what was spilled — salvage that never comes back whole.
củi tre một bọn, bài thập một môn
Bamboo kindling in one bundle, the tens in one suit — birds of a feather, cards of a suit.
củi đậu nấu đậu
Boiling beans over bean-stalk fire — a thing consumed by its own kind.
cứ bở thì đào
Where it crumbles, keep digging — press every soft spot to its bottom.
cứng đầu cứng cổ
Stiff-headed and stiff-necked — stubbornly defiant of all correction.
cứu vật vật trả ơn, cứu nhơn nhơn trả oán
Save a beast and it repays kindness; save a man and he repays spite — gratitude, the animals' virtue.
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