kình thân tàm thực
The whale swallows, the silkworm nibbles — encroachment by gulp or by inch, both eat you whole.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
kín cổng cao tường
Sealed gates and high walls — respectability engineered as architecture.
kín tranh hơn lành gỗ
Tight thatch beats sound timber — better a humble roof that keeps the rain out than fine beams that don't.
kính lão đắc thọ
if you respect the elderly, you'll extend your lifespan
kính nhi viễn chi
to respect yet keep one's distance; to respectfully distance oneself
kíp miệng, chầy chân
Quick of mouth, slow of foot — the tongue sprints where the legs won't follow.
Kẻ Sặt đất lề quê thói
Kẻ Sặt — where the land keeps its margins and the village its ways — a town famed for order and custom.
kẻ tham công người tiếc việc
One grudges the effort, the other the interruption — two thrifts colliding over the same task.
kẻ thâm người thù
Deep with some, cold with others — favor rationed by private ledger.
kẻ tung người hứng
One tosses, the other catches — a duet of collusion; patter perfectly rehearsed.
kẻ đắp chăn bông kẻ lạnh lùng
some have it all while others have nothing
kết cỏ ngậm vành
Knotting grass and holding the ring — a vow to repay deep kindness even from beyond the grave.
kề vai sát cánh
Shoulder to shoulder, wing to wing — standing and working side by side for one goal.
kỉ dụ lập nhi lập nhơn, kỉ dục đạt nhi đạt nhơn
Wishing to stand, help others stand; wishing to arrive, help others arrive — self-making by making others.
kị chỉ thử nhỉ
The donkey's one kick — a fearsome show with a single trick behind it, as the tiger discovered.
kị hổ nan hạ
Once astride the tiger, dismounting is the danger — some positions permit no graceful exit.
kỹ thuật viên vật lý trị liệu
physiotherapist
L/L
initialism of liên lạc (“to contact”)
lang tâm, cẩu hạnh
Wolf heart and cur conduct — appetite with the leash cut; shameless, predatory ways.
lanh chanh như hành không muối
Skittish as unsalted spring onion — so hasty it scatters everywhere, like onion flying off the board.
lao lực bất như lao tâm
Toil of the muscles is less than toil of the heart — worry wounds deeper than work.
lay trời dậy đất
Shaking heaven and heaving earth — an event that astonishes everyone.
lemỏn
Stuck-up, “extra” — chảnh spelled as citrus: lemon + a Vietnamese hook mark, because chảnh sounds like chanh (lemon).
liễu yếu đào tơ
a young, gentle, and fragile woman
liệu cơm gắp mắm
to be mindful of one's surroundings and circumstances to choose the right options
liệu gió phất cờ
Read the wind before waving the flag — commitment timed to the gust.
lo bò trắng răng
to needlessly worry
lo quanh lo quẩn, lo gì mà lo, lo con bò trắng răng
Worrying whether the ox's teeth are white — anxiety assigned to a problem that does not exist.
loan phượng ăn xoài
The loan and phoenix sharing mangoes — a dream of a perfectly matched union.
long trời lở đất
world-shaking; earthshattering
luật hoa quả
The “law of fruit-ma” — karma, respelled: nhân (cause/karma) also means “kernel”, so the internet swapped in fruit.
luật vua thua lệ làng
In practice, local custom outweighs distant formal authority — the village’s rules beat the king’s law.
làm bộ làm tịch
to feign; to pretend
làm chẳng nên ăn
Leaning on clout and leaning on spirits — importance borrowed from every altar available.
làm công ăn lương
to work and earn, to be a salaryman
làm dâu nhà cả thể, làm rể nhà nhiều con
Daughter-in-law to a grand house, son-in-law to a house of many sons — the two hardest marriages to keep with honor.
làm giàu không khó
'Getting rich isn't hard' — the seminar-hall catchphrase of easy-wealth preachers, quoted mostly in irony.
làm hoa cho người hái, làm gái cho người chơi
Born a flower, picked; born a girl, trifled with — the verse's bleak equation of beauty and use.
làm kiếp trâu
A buffalo's lot — born to haul; the laboring life assigned at birth.
làm lớn phải làm láo
To be big is to answer big — rank means carrying rank's troubles.
làm mướn không công
Hired labor, unpaid — the wage that evaporates between promise and payday.
làm người phải đắn phải đo Phải cân nặng nhẹ, phải dò nông sâu
To be a person is to measure and weigh — balance heavy against light, sound the shallow and the deep.
làm phúc phải tội
Do a kindness, catch a charge — philanthropy billed as the crime.
làm quan thì dễ, làm thể thì khó
Becoming an official is easy; becoming worthy of it is hard — the office arrives faster than the dignity.
làm ruộng ăn cơm nằm, để tằm ăn cơm đứng
The farmer eats lying down; the silkworm-keeper eats standing up — one calendar allows rest, the other never.
làm thần đất ta, làm ma đất người
A god on home soil, a ghost on foreign — talent's rank drops at the border.
làm thủ tục trực tuyến
to check in online
làm trai cho đáng nên trai, khom lưng chống gối gánh hai hạt vừng
Be a man worth the name: back bowed, knees braced — to carry two sesame seeds — the mock-epic of the useless husband.
làm trai lấy được vợ hiền, như cầm đồng tiền mua được của ngon
Marry a virtuous wife and it's a coin that buys good things forever — the husband's bargain of a lifetime.
làm trai quyết chí tu thân, công danh chớ vội, nợ nần chớ lo
Resolve to perfect yourself first, young man — no rush toward fame, no fretting over debts.
làm trâu làm ngựa
to work diligently and submissively
làm đĩ chín phương, để một phương lấy chồng
Work nine directions; keep one for marrying — even the most compromised life reserves one clean quarter.
làm ơn mắc oán
benefactors often get hatred from beneficiaries; no good deed goes unpunished
làm ơn được nên ơn
Live generously, meet generosity — the open hand is answered in kind.
làng Châu Khê tay vàng tay bạc
Châu Khê village, hands of gold and silver — the jewelers' hamlet named by its craft.
lành làm gáo, vỡ làm môi
Whole, it's a dipper; broken, a ladle — every state of the gourd still serves.
lành làm thúng lủng làm mê
Sound, a basket; holed, a sieve-mat — worked in every state, discarded in none.
lành như bụt
Gentle as the Buddha — mildness past provocation.
lành ăn dễ khiến
Scolded in anger, loved in silence — the household's two dialects of care.
lá lành đùm lá rách
the strong protect the weak