nhiễu điều phủ lấy giá gương, người trong một nước phải thương nhau cùng
The red cloth drapes the mirror's stand — people of one country must love one another — the national verse of solidarity.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
The red cloth drapes the mirror's stand — people of one country must love one another — the national verse of solidarity.
The soft outlasts the hard — tongues survive the teeth; yielding is the durable strength.
'Busy household!' — the mock-harried shrug of someone with everything and nothing to do.
At Nhà Bè the current splits in two: one home to Gia Định, one to Đồng Nai — the southern crossroads of longing.
A Lý Thông in the house — trust betrayed by the very person sheltered.
A rich man's cut finger equals a beggar's spilled guts — the pampered grieve a scratch like a disemboweling.
The rich covet more work — appetite for gain grows with the granary.
A house on the high street and a father high up — born holding every advantage worth holding.
A poor house reveals the devoted child; a realm in chaos, the loyal servant — allegiance is only legible in adversity.
An image of settled rural prosperity — a tile-roofed house and jackfruit trees mark a well-established household.
it is important to be clean and tidy
The most-needed question in any country: "where is the toilet?" — "nhà vệ sinh" is the polite word; signs may say WC or Toilet.
if people have nothing better to do, they will look for trouble
Scattered as chicks that lost the hen — panic in every direction at once.
The person ages; the heart does not — the calendar stops at the skin.
Humanity and duty reign forever; silver and gold are guests just passing through — the visitor status of money.
Close to the English saying: “You reap what you sow.”.
IT worker; IT staff member
porter; luggage attendant
Main-character status — living (or posing) like the story revolves around you; admiring or ironic depending on who is filming.
Man's determination will conquer nature.
Mistaking a chicken for a moorhen — muddling two plainly different things; can't tell right from wrong.
A look to make your ovaries drop — swooning admiration, anatomically exaggerated.
Seeing far and looking wide — foresight that spots what others haven't yet imagined.
Grimacing like a monkey — a face folded into complaint.
Between you and me, no debt — neither side owes the other a thing.
Ignorant of past and present, a horse or ox in a robe — without learning, clothing is all that separates.
No parent knows their child's faults, no farmer his rice's height — doting blinds and greed never fills.
The dying speak kindly, the dying bird cries sorrowfully — at the end, all voices turn true.
Each person their own ambition — every heart keeps its private compass.
Cornered people improvise, cornered things recoil — press anything to its limit and it turns.
Our common ailment: not knowing our own measure — self-ignorance, the one universal disease.
Succeeding by other people's hands — accomplishment that waited to be led there.
Death belongs to life as night to day — mortality as plainly natural as sundown.
Seventy years — rare since antiquity — a long life is a gift, its end no cause for grievance.
Feeling reads warm-and-cold; faces track high-and-low — affection recalibrated daily to your fortunes.
A person dies leaving a name, a tiger leaving a skin — the classical form of the epitaph proverb.
No one is complete in all ten parts — perfection isn't a human size.
Without trustworthiness, a person cannot stand — credit is the spine of standing.
No far planning, near sorrow — the unprovided future moves in next door.
People die for wealth, birds for food — each species undone by its own appetite.
Perfectly in one’s element; thriving in exactly the right environment.
Holding fire up to burn heaven — insolence on a cosmic budget.
like water off a duck's back.
like water off a duck's back.
Like a boat without a rudder — motion entirely at the current's discretion.
Like water deepening, like fire hotter — meddling that raises the flood and stokes the blaze.
Like punching a cotton sack — force absorbed entirely; no reply, no result.
The weak sue for peace — treaties are what the losing side calls surrender.
Bland as snail broth — flavor filed under rumor.
Powder faded, perfume flown — beauty past its season.
Spitting pearls and breathing gems — writing so fine each word drops like a jewel.
High-jumping and quick-kicking — in full stride; talent at its most athletic hour.
One coin of capital, ten thousand of profit — the trader's New-Year blessing for a fat return.
first cultivate the pond, second cultivate the garden, third cultivate the paddy
First dusk, second dawn — the two golden windows when fish bite and work on the water pays best; borrowed onshore for any task with a right time of day.
First the child, then the grandchild — affection's fixed order of precedence.
to kill two birds with one stone
each and every move; every single action
first comes distance/proximity, second comes speed