vật bất ly thân
Keep your things on your body — property parted from its person recruits its own thief.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
vật bất tề vật chi tình dã
Things are unequal by nature — prices differ because things do; so ruled Mencius.
vật qui cổ chủ
Goods return to their old owner — possession circles home; heaven's property returns to earth.
vật đổi sao dời
everything changes
vắn cổ kêu chẳng thấu trời
A short neck's cry never reaches heaven — the small wronged voice, lost below the clouds.
vắng mợ chợ vẫn đông
no-one is indispensable, nobody is so important that others cannot do without
vắng ngắt như chùa Bà Đanh
Silent as Bà Đanh's temple — desertion so complete it became the national standard of emptiness.
vắng như chùa
Crowded as a market — humanity at full jostle.
vắng như chùa Bà Đanh
completely desolate, devoid of people's visitations
vắng đàn-ông quạnh nhà, vắng đàn-bà quạnh bếp
No man home, the house is desolate; no woman, the kitchen is — each absence darkens its own room.
vắt chày ra nước
Wringing water from a pestle — thrift squeezed past the possible.
vắt chân chữ ngũ
Used to indicate the state of being comfortably confident, of one's legs in a shape of the letter 五: unconstrained
vặt mũi không đủ đút miệng
Plucking from the nose can't fill the mouth — income structurally short of appetite.
vẽ bò bán bóng
Drawing an ox and selling its shadow — commerce in pictures of value.
vẽ mày vẽ mặt
Painting brows and face — cosmetics applied to reputation as much as skin.
vẽ rắn thêm chân
Painting legs on the snake — ruining a finished thing with superfluous flourishes.
vẽ đường cho hươu chạy
Drawing the deer its escape route — helpfully mapping the wrong for the wrongdoer.
về nhà hỏi trẻ
Home truths, ask the children — the household's most honest witnesses are its smallest.
vệ quốc hộ quân
Guarding the state and shielding the army — holding fast the framework of the nation.
vỉ đại bất trạo
A tail too big to wag — the branches outgrowing the trunk; subordinates too strong to steer.
vị tri sanh, yên tri tử
Not yet knowing life, how know death — Confucius's answer to every question about the hereafter.
vị uyên khu ngư, vị tòng khu tước
Driving fish for the deep, driving sparrows for the thicket — the tyrant's cruelty herds his own people to his rival.
vịt già gà tơ
Old duck, young chicken — each meat at its proper age; timing is the recipe.
vịt nghe sấm
A duck hearing thunder — sound received, meaning nowhere.
vịt nghe xấm
A duck hearing thunder — sound in, meaning nowhere.
vỏ quít dầy móng tay nhọn
A thick orange rind meets a sharp fingernail — every defense eventually meets its matching attack.
vỏ quýt dày có móng tay nhọn
it doesn't matter how smart or cunning you are, there's always someone else better to take you down
vợ chết thật vợ mình
Only the wife who dies yours was truly yours — die first, and wife, wealth and fields all take new owners.
vợ chồng là nghĩa cả đời Ai ơi nhớ nghĩ những lời thiệt hơn
Husband and wife are a whole life's bond — weigh every word of it, the losses with the gains.
vợ chồng như áo bận vào cỗi ra
Spouses are garments, put on and taken off — brothers are limbs, and limbs don't unbutton.
vợ cái con cột, vợ lẽ con thêm
The first wife is the main pillar; the lesser wife, an added post — the old house's blunt architecture of marriage.
vợ khôn dạy chồng dại
A wise wife schooling a foolish husband — a marriage pulling at mismatched strengths.
vợ kén tông, chồng kén giống
A wife chosen by her line, a husband by his stock — marriage vetted at the pedigree.
vợ lẽ con thêm
A minor wife and an extra child — burdens multiplied by one's own entanglements.
vợ thằng đậu
Đậu's wife — a byword for hopeless clumsiness around the house.
vợ xứ Đông, chồng xứ Bắc
A wife from the East country, a husband from the North — folk geography's ideal match.
vụng chèo khéo chống
A poor workman blames his tools.
vừa ăn cướp vừa la làng
to burglarize while crying for help
vừa đánh trống vừa ăn cướp
to beat the drum (as in, sound the burglar alarm) while burglarizing
Vỹ Sinh ôm cây
Vỹ Sinh clasping the pillar — keeping a promise to the death, drowned at the trysting post.
xa mặt cách lòng
Absence weakens affection — when people no longer see each other, their hearts drift apart.
xa mỏi chân gần mỏi miệng
Far kin tire the feet, near kin tire the mouth — distance costs visits; proximity costs words.
xa tải đấu lương
Carted and measured by the bushel — the mediocre come in bulk; excellence is counted by the piece.
xa xa Côn Đảo nhà tù,
Far off lies Côn Đảo the prison isle — the exile's landmark, sung at a distance no boat wants to close.
xa xôi em chớ ngại ngùng, xa người, xa tiếng nhưng lòng không xa
Don't fear the distance — far from the person, far from the voice, but the heart has not moved.
xanh râu là chúa, bạc đầu là tôi
Green beards rule, white heads serve — rank outranks age, however the elders grumble.
xe dây buộc mình
Spinning the rope that binds oneself — complications hand-braided at home.
xem tivi hoặc xem phim
watching TV or films
xem việc biết người
Close to the English saying: “A workman is known by his chips.”.
xl
Texting shortcut for “xin lỗi” — sorry.
xong phim
the movie has ended
xu cà na
Unlucky; doomed-day energy — “xu” from xui (unlucky) plus a fruity flourish.
xui nguyên giục bị
Egging on the plaintiff and goading the defendant — stirring both sides of a quarrel for one's own profit.
xuân bất tái lai
Spring does not come twice — the one green season is the one you're in.
xuất dương hiệu lực
Overseas service to redeem one's name — a fault worked off on a foreign mission.
xuất giá tòng phu
Married, she follows the husband — the middle clause of the old three-followings code.
xuất hồ nhỉ, phản hồ nhỉ
What leaves by your hand returns by your hand — issue and repayment share an address.
xuống hố
synonym of xuống lỗ (“to die”)
xuống thác lên ghềnh
Down the falls, up the rapids — a course of nothing but hard water.
xát muối vào vết thương
to add insult to injury
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