lá rụng về cội
The falling leaf returns to the root — children find their way back to their parents; all things home to their origin.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
lánh nặng tìm nhẹ
Dodging the heavy, courting the light — laziness with a selection policy.
láu tôm láu cá
Shrimp-sly and fish-sly — full of petty cunning at every turn.
lâm khát nhi quật tỉnh
Digging the well only when thirst arrives — provision postponed until it's no longer provision.
lâu ngày dầy kén
Long days thicken the cocoon — time compounds whatever is quietly accumulating.
lão bạn sanh châu
The old oyster yields the pearl — a child born to aging parents; late fruit, rare and prized.
lão bất tử, lão thành tặc
Old and deathless turns bandit — the mischievous jest at elders who outlive their dignity.
lão lai tài tận
Age arrives, talent departs — the wit wears out on the same schedule as the knees.
lão mã tri đạo
The old horse knows the road — experience navigates where cleverness is lost.
lão ngô lão dĩ cập nhơn chi lão, ấu ngô ấu dĩ cập nhơn chi ấu
Honor your own elders outward to all elders; cherish your own young outward to all young — kinship as a widening circle.
lèm bà lèm bèm
Mumbling drivel — words in quantity, meaning in none.
lên non cho biết non cao Xuống biển cầm sào cho biết cạn sâu
Climb the mountain to know its height; go down to the sea with a pole to learn shallow from deep — knowledge is bodily.
lên non mới biết non cao, nuôi con mới biết công lao mẹ hiền
Climb the mountain to know its height; raise a child to know a gentle mother's labor — scale learned only firsthand.
lên voi xuống chó
to have ups and downs in one's life; to go from rags to riches and/or riches to rags; to move up and down the socioeconomic ladder
lênh đênh qua cửa Thần Phù Khéo tu thì nổi, vụng tu thì chìm
Adrift past Thần Phù strait — the well-cultivated float, the ill-cultivated sink — virtue as seamanship.
lòng vả lòng sung
A fig's heart knows the sycamore's — judge another's feelings by your own; both fruits hide the same flower.
lóc thịt lột da
To carve off flesh and strip away skin — repaying one's very body to its givers, like Nezha to his parents.
lót dép ngồi hóng
Sandal down, settling in to watch — pulling up a front-row seat to other people's drama.
lôi thôi lếch thếch
Rumpled and trailing — untidy, disheveled, clothes every which way.
lý bất cập thế
Reason loses to power — right argued from weakness is overruled; the orphan swallows the logic too.
lưng chữ cụ, vú chữ tâm
A back like the character cụ, a bosom like tâm — the fortune-teller's marks of a prosperous wife.
lưu kim tuế nguyệt
Golden years flowing on in fame — a name left sweet for all time.
lươn chê chạch dài đuôi
The eel calling the loach long-tailed — critique from a mirror-image; the unwashed judging the unwashed.
lươn ngắn chạch dài
The eel is short, the loach long — comparing lengths between creatures built differently.
lương y như từ mẫu
a good physician is like a loving and caring mother
lười chảy thây
extremely lazy, as if one's body were about to rot, with no life signals
lườm rau gắp thịt
Glaring at the greens while picking at the meat — feints that misdirect what you're really after.
lường thân tráo đầu chẳng qua đong đầy
All the rigged measures never beat one honest full scoop — trickery loses to plain fair dealing.
lưỡi không xương
The tongue has no bones — so it bends to any shape convenient.
lưỡi sắc hơn gươm
The tongue cuts sharper than the sword — words wound past any blade's reach.
lưỡng bại câu thương
both sides loses
lạ gì
whatever being discussed about is not strange or unfamiliar; I'm not unfamiliar with the fact that; everyone knows that
lạc đàng nắm đuôi chó, lạc ngỏ nắm đuôi trâu
Lost on the road, follow the dog's tail; lost in the lanes, the buffalo's — beasts remember the way their masters forgot.
lạnh như đồng
Cold as bronze — chill without a flicker of feeling.
lạt mềm buộc chặt
apply gentle affection to strengthen a bond; don't be overbearing; you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar (especially romantically)
lạy ông tôi ở bụi này
'Kind sir, I'm hiding in this bush!' — giving yourself away in the very act of hiding.
lấp sông lấp giếng ai lấp được miệng
Dam the river, cap the well — but who dams a mouth — gossip is the one flood without an engineering solution.
lấy của mà che thân
Wealth exists to shield the body — spend it before it spends you; goods serve the owner, not the reverse.
lấy dạ tiểu nhân đo lòng quân tử
to be cynical; to be skeptical of the integrity, sincerity, or motives of others; to psychologically project
lấy gậy chọc giời
Poking heaven with a stick — protest scaled hopelessly beneath its target.
lấy ngao lường biển
Measuring the sea with a clamshell — ambition uncalibrated to its instrument.
lấy thúng úp voi
Hiding an elephant under a basket — concealment outsized by its secret.
lấy thịt đè người
Hair growing in the belly — cunning gone visceral; schemes bred in the gut.
lấy trứng chọi đá
to overestimate one's capabilities; to attack a stronger opponent as the weaker side which is sure to end in failure
lấy vợ kiêng tuổi đàn-bà, làm nhà kiêng tuổi đàn-ông
Marry by her age, build by his — the almanac's division of labor for the two great undertakings.
lấy độc trị độc
to treat poison with poison
lật cánh đánh đầu
Flip the wing, strike the head — working a thing over minutely to squeeze the best from it.
lắm duyên nhiều nợ
Much charm, many debts — every attachment opens an account.
lắm mối tối nằm không
If you run after two hares, you'll catch none.
lắm thầy thối ma
Taking advice from too many people ruins the outcome — conflicting guidance confuses everything.
lặn mất tăm
To vanish without a trace — go silent, ghost everyone, disappear from the group chat.
lặn ngòi ngoi nước
Diving the creeks and surfacing the shallows — slogging through every hardship of the road.
lặng như tờ
Still as a sheet of paper — a hush with no edge to it.
lễ thuận nhơn tình
Ritual must follow human feeling — ceremony serves the heart, or it serves nothing.
lịch sử đi bạn ơi
'Lịch sử đi bạn ơi' — a soft-toned pun on 'lịch sự đi bạn ơi': mind your manners, friend.
lịnh làng nào làng ấy đánh, thánh làng nào làng ấy thờ
Each village beats its own summons, each village worships its own saint — jurisdiction ends at the bamboo hedge.
lịnh ông cồng bà
His lordship's gong against her ladyship's — a contest over who really rules the house.
lịnh ông không bằng cồng bà
His lordship's order is less than her ladyship's gong — the household's real chain of command.
lọt sàng xuống nia
What slips the sieve lands in the flat-basket — nothing lost within the family; the spill stays in the house.
lọt vào mắt xanh
to strike someone's fancy