tấn thối lưỡng nan
Hard forward, hard back — wedged where neither advance nor retreat will serve.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
tầm gửi lấn ngành
A dog-flea dancing on the wick — antics tiny, stage tinier.
tầm hoa vấn liễu
Hunting flowers and courting willows — the flirt's rounds among the blooms.
tầm sư học đạo
one must seek out a good teacher to learn the true way of life
tầng lai thân giả sơ
Visit too often and the close grow distant — familiarity spends the very affection it feeds on.
tẩu hỏa nhập ma
Fire runs to the head and the demon enters — kung-fu overtraining madness; burnout by obsession.
tẩu mã khán hoa
Viewing flowers at a gallop — the Sino-Vietnamese original of skimming past what deserved study.
tẩu vi thượng sách
when in a pinch, the best course of action is to flee
tận lương vô kế
Provisions gone, stratagems gone — no purse, no plan; money is the mother of maneuvers.
tận nhơn lực phương tri thiên mạng
Spend all human strength, then learn heaven's decree — effort first, and fate only after the last ounce.
tận tâm kiệt lực
Whole heart, spent strength — effort emptied to the last measure.
tận tâm sở sự
Whole heart to the task at hand — duty done at full sincerity or not at all.
tận tín thư, bất như vô thư
Trust books entirely and you'd be better off bookless — read critically or not at all.
tập dử tánh thành
Habit hardens into nature — practice long enough and the practice is you.
tật sau lưng
The flaw rides behind your back — everyone carries two sacks: others' faults in front, their own behind.
tắm khi nào vuốt mặt khi ấy
Wiping the face only while bathing — courtesy performed exactly when convenient, gratitude on the same schedule.
tị khanh lạc tỉnh
Dodge the pit, drop into the well — escape one trap by way of the next.
tị thật kích hư
Avoid the solid, strike the hollow — attack where the enemy isn't.
tị thật tựu hư
Shunning strength to work the weakness — pressure applied where resistance is thinnest.
tị trọng tựu khinh
Taking the light and leaving the heavy — duty triaged by personal convenience.
tọa hưởng kì thành
Sitting down to enjoy the finished thing — arriving at the banquet after others built the kitchen.
tọa sơn quan hổ đấu
Sitting on the mountain to watch the tigers fight — letting rivals maul each other, then collecting.
tọa thực sơn băng
Sit idle and eat, and a mountain erodes — no fortune outlasts a workless appetite.
tốc hành cấp tốc
Express and double-quick — at absolute top speed.
tối lửa tắt đèn
When the fire dims and the lamp goes out — the neighborly hour of need; who comes then is kin.
tối như hũ nút
Dark as a stoppered jar — pitch black; or thick-skulled beyond teaching.
tối đâu là nhà, ngã đâu là giường
Dark falls — that's home; where you stumble — that's the bed — the drifter's whole real estate.
tống cựu nghinh tân
Seeing off the old, welcoming the new — the year-end rite of letting go and greeting what comes.
tốt danh hơn lành áo
A good name beats a good coat — wear reputation before broadcloth.
tốt gỗ hơn tốt nước sơn, xấu người đẹp nết, còn hơn đẹp người
Sound timber beats fine varnish; a plain face with good character beats beauty — the standard verse of substance over surface.
tốt khoe xấu che
people tend to show what's good about themselves and hide what's bad
tốt số hơn khôn
A good fate beats a good head — the lucky outrun the clever.
tốt thì khoe xấu thì che
Show the fine, veil the flawed — instinct's own advertising department.
tốt tuổi nằm duổi mà ăn
Born lucky, dine reclining — a good fate does the working while its owner stretches out.
tốt tóc nhọc cột nhà
Good hair tires the house-post — long-haired beauty beating her tresses dry against the pillar.
tổ chảng
Huge, whopping — emphatically oversized.
tội gà vạ vịt
The hen's offense, the duck's fine — punished for a fowl you never touched; blame that lands on the bystander.
tội lây vạ tràn
Guilt spreads, penalty floods — the old collective punishments, drowning the innocent adjacent.
tội nghi di khinh, công nghi di trọng
Doubted guilt weighs light, doubted merit weighs heavy — justice errs toward mercy and reward.
tội qui vu trưởng
Guilt files upward to the senior — the prow errs and the helm is caned; command owns the error.
tội đại ác cực
Crime great and evil extreme — guilt at its terminal grade.
tới công chuyện
“Now it’s on” — trouble (or serious business) has officially arrived; also “going all out”.
tứ cố vô thân
utterly alone; isolated without family, friends, or support
tứ hải giai huynh đệ
all men are brothers
tứ đại đồng đường
Four generations under one roof — great-grandparents to great-grandchildren in a single household.
tức cảnh sinh tình
art of improvisation, through depicting one's scenery or situation at a fleeting moment
tức nước vỡ bờ
the straw that broke the camel's back
từ cổ chí kim
since time immemorial
từ ngày Tự Đức lên ngôi,
Since Tự Đức took the throne... — the protest verses dated by reign, where complaint learned to keep a calendar.
từ sông ra biển
from the river to the sea (a phrase supporting Palestinian self-determination)
từng lớp
(phrase) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see từng, lớp.
tử bất giáo phụ chi quá
A child untaught is the father's fault — the old ledger of parental duty.
tử dai kỳ tử
Every child heirs alike — the estate divided per head, whichever bed they were born from.
tử giả biệt luận
Of the dead, no verdicts — the grave closes the case.
tử giả bất khả phục sinh, đoạn giả bất khả phục thục
The dead do not live again, the severed does not rejoin — two finalities to weigh before the blade falls.
tử hải dai huinh đệ
Within the four seas, all are brothers — one root under every stranger.
tử sanh hữu mạng
Death and life are fated; wealth and honor sit with heaven — the couplet that files mortality under destiny.
tử vô táng địa
Dead with no ground to lie in — ruin's last line: not even a burial plot.
tử vị phụ ẩn
The child shields the father — blood's code of concealment, older than the courts.
tửu bất túy nhơn nhơn tự túy
Wine makes no one drunk; drinkers do — the bottle's oldest alibi, refused.