trai tài gái sắc
Talented men and beautiful women — the classical matched pair; each sex graded on its old currency.
All languages English Tiếng Việt
Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
Talented men and beautiful women — the classical matched pair; each sex graded on its old currency.
Striking poses and arranging appearances — performance in place of substance.
Texting shortcut for “trước” — before / first. “đi trc nha” = heading out first.
when bamboos grow old, young shoots spring up
The bamboo weeps for the shoot — a parent burying a child; grief in the wrong order.
Young bamboo bends easily — training is a property of greenness.
To advertise one thing but deliver another — deceptive marketing or bait-and-switch.
Knowing the crime and not reporting — concealment convicted as complicity.
Know sufficiency and be always sufficient — a life unhumiliated to its end.
No one knows the child like the father — parenthood is the longest observation.
Breakfast at dawn, lodging at dusk — the traveler's steady rhythm of road and rest.
Three at dawn and four at dusk — the monkey-keeper's shuffle; the same total, resold as a concession.
every cloud has a silver lining
... in two minutes.
... in fifteen minutes.
... in a minute.
... in an hour.
Unclear inside the house, already known out in the lane — the household's secrets commute faster than its members.
... in half an hour.
A firefly indoors, a torch outdoors — glow saved for the audience, dark kept for the family.
What in the marsh is lovelier than the lotus — green leaf, white bloom, gold stamens — near the mud yet never smelling of mud — Vietnam's emblem of integrity.
Warm within, calm without — the well-run household's climate report.
Honest words offend the ear — counsel's truest note is the one that grates.
to be loyal to the monarch and love the country; loyalty to the monarch and love for the country
The loyal fear no death; the death-fearing are not loyal — allegiance is priced in exactly one currency.
tourist information office
Announce it down the generations — a standing threat: obey, or the punishment will find you.
Blame the one who schemed too widely — plum already picked, and reaching to snap the peach besides.
Blame the nameless 'gentleman' — done with the flower, he breaks the branch and hawks it — the seducer's full itinerary.
When the wind crosses and the sky turns — the aches of changing weather; moods that turn with it.
Cross-grained in temper and habit — a nature that rubs everyone the wrong way.
Yielding to the elephant shames no one's face — stepping aside from the overwhelming is sense, not cowardice.
away from the watermelon rind, into the coconut shell
Rare birds and strange beasts — exotic treasures of the menagerie.
The chained water buffalo hates the water buffalo that grazes.
The fat buffalo hauls for the thin — strength's duty to carry what weakness can't.
When the strong-willed members of a group butt heads, the bystanders suffer.
The sore-backed buffalo shies at every passing crow — a wound installs its own lookout.
Buffaloes plow, horses are ridden — each creature issued its own employment at birth.
robbing the cradle
A buffalo's cough equals an ox's bellow — the great man's smallest ailment outweighs the small man's crisis.
No offers while the buffalo lives; a dozen knives when it falls — vultures respect only the moment of collapse.
The buffalo seeks the post, never the post the buffalo — the dependent goes to the anchor: servant to master, child to parent.
Trampled by buffalo or elephant, dead either way — the gambler's shrug: if losing, lose big.
Each field's buffalo grazes its own field — marry in the village, and let no outsider's beast in.
the bigger they are, the harder they fall
Slip-ups becomes more consequential, the more influence you have.
to impotent, unable to achieve or sustain an erection, having impotentia coeundi
Respect upward, yield downward — the well-ordered household's two directions of courtesy.
over or under par
Harmony above, concord below — the whole hierarchy at peace.
Tease the stork and it pecks your eye — bait the patient bird at your own risk.
Mind rounded, conduct squared — thought should turn freely; behavior should keep corners.
The wise see roughly alike — climb high enough and every summit shows one view.
The wise err once in a thousand thoughts; the fool scores once — humility for one, hope for the other; even a madman's word is worth the sages' sifting.
A fault understood and corrected is cancelled; understood and kept, it doubles.
Round of rim, clear of letters — enunciation polished until every word stands whole.
Drifted downriver, strayed through markets — the unhoused and unregistered, current-borne.
Trôn — Vietnamized 'troll': to wind someone up online for laughs.
Looking up, I am no one's equal; looking down, no one is my equal either.