quân tử trả thù, mười năm chưa muộn
revenge is a dish best served cold
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
quân tử tại giả, tiểu nhơn tại triều
Gentlemen in the fields, small men at court — the age turned upside down, rank and place traded.
quân tử viện bào trù
The gentleman keeps clear of the kitchen — great matters upstairs, no accounting of morsels below.
quân tử ưu đạo bất ưu bần
The gentleman worries over the way, not over want — poverty of purse never troubled him, poverty of principle does.
quân tử ứ hự thì đau
A cleared throat wounds the gentleman — to the honorable, the gentlest reproach lands like a blow.
quân vô hí ngôn
A monarch should not say anything in jest
quân-tử phòng thân
The gentleman guards his person — prudence as a nobleman's first weapon.
quét nhà ra rác
Sweep the house and rubbish appears — inspect anything closely enough and faults surface.
quê cha đất tổ
Father's homeland, ancestors' earth — the ground that owns you back.
quí tinh bất quí đa
Prize the refined, not the numerous — an army, or anything, measured in quality over count.
quí vật tìm quí nhơn
Precious things seek precious owners — treasures circulate toward whoever can afford their keeping.
quýt làm cam chịu
having to bear the blame for something one did not do
quýt ngọt chanh chua
Sweet tangerine and sour lime — each nature keeps its flavor; households mix both.
quạ mượn lông công
The crow borrowing peacock feathers — dressing in others' finery to hide what one is.
quạ mổ diều tha
Pecked by crows, snatched by kites — misfortune queuing up for the same victim.
quạ quạ nuôi con tu hú
The crow raising the koel's chick — labor donated to a squatter; the lazy bird's egg hatched by another's warmth.
quạ đội lốt công
A crow in peacock's guise — borrowed splendor over a shabby core.
quả bom tình dục
A sex bomb — smoldering physical magnetism.
quả dục bảo thân
Sparing desire preserves the body — the old physician's ledger of appetite against years.
quả hòa vô thân
Scant harmony, scant friends — the prickly keep an empty visiting-book.
quả kiếp nhân duyên
Karma's fruit and fated bonds — good matches and bad lots alike are cause ripened into effect.
quất ngựa truy phong
Whipping the horse to chase the wind — bolting from a lover without a backward glance.
quần cộc chân chì, không Tứ Kỳ thì cũng Gia Lộc
Short trousers and lead-dark shins — if not Tứ Kỳ, then Gia Lộc — the teasing uniform of the mud-field districts.
quần nghị phụ chiên
Ants swarming rank meat — the stampede toward anything that smells of profit.
quần ngư tranh thực
A shoal of fish fighting for the feed — a free-for-all over the same scrap.
quần tam tụ ngũ
Clustering in threes, knotting in fives — little knots of people gathering to gossip or scheme.
quỉ khốc thần sầu
Ghosts weep and spirits mourn — writing so fine the supernatural grieves; or wickedness so great it appalls them.
quốc dĩ dân vi bổn
The nation takes the people as its root — no populace, no state; the base firm, the country calm.
quốc kêu mùa hè
The moorhen calls all summer — persistence itself, in one bird's throat.
quốc kế dân sinh
State planning and the people's livelihood — the great matters of nation and daily bread.
quỷ khốc thần sầu
Ghosts weep and spirits grieve — dreadful enough to appall the supernatural.
quỷ nhập tràng
A corpse possessed at the shrouding — the dead rising deranged; someone acting past all belief.
quỷ tha ma bắt
goddamn; curse; screw
ra dẻ
Acting like it; putting on airs — pretending to a role you haven’t earned.
ra luồn vào cúi
Stooping out, bowing in — a career conducted entirely bent over.
ra môn ra khoai
to do something with clear results
ra ngõ gặp giai
Meet a man at the gate — the errand-day omen, read at the first face out the door.
ra sông mới biết cạn sâu, ở trong lạch hói, biết đâu mà dò
Only on the river do you learn shallow from deep; in the creeks and backwaters there's no sounding at all.
ra đầu ra đũa
Head-and-chopsticks clear — laid out properly from start to finish.
rau nào sâu ấy
Every vegetable has its own worm — each nature attracts its matching pest; like finds like.
rau răm đất cứng dễ bứng khó trồng, dù thương cho lắm cũng chồng người ta
Knotweed grows in hard ground — easy to uproot, hard to transplant; love her as you may, she is another man's wife.
rep 1:1
The top replica grade — a counterfeit built to pass for the original at a glance (90-95% faithful), still fake where it counts: materials, durability, and the details a trained eye spots.
rep ib
Shop-speak for "replying in your DMs" — "rep" (reply) + "ib" (inbox); where the price talk moves when the comments get crowded.
ru con con ngủ cho rồi, mẹ ra chỗ vắng, mẹ ngồi than thân
Sleep, child, sleep — so mother can slip to an empty corner and mourn her own lot — the lullaby's hidden second verse.
ru con, con ngủ cho lành, cho mẹ gánh nước rửa bành cho voi. Muốn coi, lên núi mà coi, coi Bà Triệu tướng cưỡi voi đánh cồng
Sleep sound, child, while mother hauls water to wash the elephant's howdah — want to see? Climb the mountain and watch Lady Triệu ride her elephant and strike the gong — the lullaby that carries a woman general.
ru con, con ngủ cho say, để u dệt vải cho thầy nhuộm nâu. Cắt quần cắt áo u khâu, để thầy con mặc cấy bừa mùa chiêm
Sleep deep, child, while mother weaves and father dyes the brown — cutting trousers and shirts she sews, for father to wear plowing the fifth-month season — the household loom in a lullaby.
rung cây nhát khỉ
Shaking the tree to scare the monkey — theater of menace with nothing behind it.
ruồi bâu kiến đậu
to let unattended and expose to the elements
ruộng ai thì nấy đắp bờ, duyên ai nấy gặp, đừng chờ uổng công
Each farmer banks their own field; each meets their own fate — waiting for another's is labor wasted.
ruộng cả ao liền
Broad fields and an adjoining pond — the picture of landed comfort.
ruộng giữa đồng, chồng giữa làng
A field mid-plain, a husband mid-village — the two best placements a woman can secure.
ruộng sâu trâu cầy
Deep fields and a plowing buffalo — the farmer's whole fortune in one inventory.
ruộng ta ta cấy, ta cày,
Our field we transplant, our field we plow — labor's plain claim to its own ground.
ruột bỏ ra da bỏ vào
Guts tossed out, skin taken in — strangers honored above blood.
ruột bỏ ra, da bọc vào
Guts thrown out, strangers' skin wrapped in — neglecting one's own kin while fawning on outsiders.
ruột cắt ruột không đành
Gut cannot cut gut — flesh of one's flesh is unseverable.
ruột để ngoài da
wearing one's heart on one's sleeve
rào giậu ngăn sân
Fencing hedges and blocking yards — walls thrown up to keep people apart.
rào sau đón trước
Fence behind, ambush ahead — precautions posted in both directions.
rào trước đón sau
to cleverly point out something infelicitous in advance so that the listener will be understanding when it occurs and find it difficult to fault the speaker; to be careful with one's words; to be on the defensive
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