xé tay vá vạt
Tearing the sleeve to patch the hem — poverty's tailoring, robbing one edge for the other.
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Where will you be? Anywhere Hà Nội & the NorthHuế / Đà Nẵng & the CenterSài Gòn & the SouthOnline slang Bắc ↔ Nam words
xôi hỏng bỏng không
The sticky rice failed and the puffed rice came to nothing — every attempt ending empty-handed.
xăng pha nhớt
Petrol cut with engine oil — a jeering label for bisexuality; dated and unkind.
xướng ca vô loài
singers and (more generally) musicians are immoral
xả cận cầu viễn
Discarding the near to chase the far — the treasure at your feet traded for a rumor over the hill.
xả xú páp
Blowing off the exhaust valve — venting steam before the engine bursts.
xảo giả đa lao chuyết nhàn
The deft get the work, the clumsy get the rest — skill is rewarded with more labor.
xất bất xang bang
Knocked every which way — battered about until there's no move left to make.
xấu chữ mà lành nghĩa
Poor script, sound meaning — homely outside, worthy within.
xấu gỗ tốt nước sơn
Poor wood under fine varnish — surface investment where substance is missing.
xấu hay làm tốt, dốt hay nói chữ
The plain love adornment, the ignorant love book-talk — each lack shops loudest for its own cover.
xấu lá xấu nem, xấu em xấu chị
A bad leaf shames the roll; a bad sister shames the elder — flaws are contagious along every bundle and bloodline.
xấu máu đòi ăn của độc
Weak blood craving the rich dish — appetite pointed exactly where it does the most harm.
xấu như ma
Ugly as a ghost — looks that startle.
xấu xa cũng thế chồng ta, dù cho tốt đẹp cũng ra chồng người
Homely as he is, he's my husband — the handsomest man is still somebody else's — fidelity's tart arithmetic.
xấu đều hơn tốt lỏi
Evenly plain beats patchily fine — better all-around modest than brilliant in spots.
xẩy đàn tan nghé
The flock scattered, the calf lost — one breakup and every dependent is adrift.
xập xám chướng
The thirteen banes — the mahjong-hand name repurposed for a full house of vices.
xịt keo
Frozen in place — so stunned you’re hairspray-set where you stand.
xỏ lá ba que
synonym of ba que xỏ lá
y cẩm dạ hành
Brocade worn walking at night — glory paraded where no eye can price it.
y cẩm hồi hương
Returning home in brocade — coming back to one's village crowned with success.
y dã ý dã
Medicine is intention — the physician's charter to adapt, never to practice by rote.
y dạng họa hồ lô
Painting the gourd from the model — imitation tracing the outline it was given.
y năng sát nhơn, dược năng cứu nhơn
Doctors can kill as medicine can save — the drug heaven made, the hand can still misuse.
yang lake
Yang lake — bilingual pun on 'giang hồ' (yang ~ giang, lake ~ hồ): a wannabe gangster, said with a smirk.
ykr
Texting shortcut for “ý kiến riêng” — just my personal opinion (IMO).
yêu ai thì bốc lên giời, ghét ai thì dìm xuống đất
Loved, hoisted to heaven; hated, pressed into the earth — appraisal by affection, calibrated in altitude.
yêu cho đòn, ghét cho ăn
Love gives the rod, hate gives the treats — the old inversion: discipline is care, indulgence is neglect.
yêu hoa vin cành
Loving the flower, grip its branch — affection that takes hold of what holds the beloved.
yêu nhau cau bảy bổ ba, ghét nhau cau sáu bổ ra làm mười
In love, seven arecas split into three; in hate, six split into ten — generosity and spite, measured in betel.
yêu nhau chị em gái, rái nhau chị em dâu
Sisters love; sisters-in-law bristle — the same house, two chemistries.
yêu nhau cởi áo trao nhau, về nhà mẹ hỏi, qua cầu gió bay
In love we swapped shirts — home, mother asks: crossing the bridge, the wind took it — the beloved lie of young lovers.
yêu nhau củ ấu cũng tròn, ghét nhau thì củ bồ hòn cũng vuông
In love the spiny caltrop is round; in hate the soap-nut is square — affection redraws geometry itself.
yêu nhau lắm cắn nhau đau
The deeper the love, the sharper the bite — passion keeps teeth.
yêu nhau mấy núi cũng trèo, mấy sông cũng lội, mấy đèo cũng qua
In love, any mountain can be climbed, any river forded, any pass crossed — the anthem of determined lovers.
yêu nhau yêu cả đường đi, ghét nhau ghét cả tông chi họ hàng
Love someone and you love their very road; hate someone and you hate their whole clan — feeling annexes everything adjacent.
yêu nhiều thì ốm, ôm nhiều thì yếu
love a lot and you will get sick, hug a lot and you will get weak (alluding to STD and impotence due to overindulgence)
yêu nên tốt, ghét nên xấu
Loved, all virtues; hated, all faults — affection edits the evidence.
yêu trẻ trẻ đến nhà
Love children and children fill your house — affection is the best-attended address.
yến tước khởi tri hồng hộc chí
Do swallows and sparrows know the swan's ambition — small wings can't read a great bird's flight plan.
yếu như sên
Weak as a snail — strength in homeopathic doses.
yểu điệu thục nữ
A graceful, gentle maiden — demure elegance in the classical mold.
z
Southern-flavored texting shortcut for “vậy” — so / like that. “sao z?” = what’s wrong / how come?
à mà thôi
'Ah— never mind' — the art of raising a thing and instantly retracting it.
á nam á nữ
Neither quite man nor quite woman — of ambiguous appearance; an unkind label for androgyny.
ác cái là
the risk is, the difficulty is (therefore unable to do the aforementioned thing)
ác giả ác báo
what goes around comes around; you reap what you sow; as you sow, so shall you reap.
ác mồm ác miệng
Vicious-mouthed — habitually saying cruel, wounding things.
ác một cái là
synonym of ác cái là
ác nhân sát đức
to act cruelly, brutally, without conscience
ác nhơn tự hữu ác nhơn ma
The wicked have their own wicked demons — one bad actor is ground down by another; evil wears out evil.
ác như hùm
extremely cruel and brutal
ách giữa đàng
The yoke in the middle of the road — trouble lying right in one's path.
ách giữa đàng mang qua cổ
The yoke lying mid-road, hauled onto one's own neck — trouble that was nobody's, volunteered for.
ái nam ái nữ
having an intersex genitalia or being intersex in general
ái nhơn như kỷ
Love others as yourself — the classical rule of measuring every act by your own wishes.
án ba ni bát mê hồng
Om mani padme hum in Vietnamese folk recitation — the Avalokiteśvara mantra as chanted at village altars.
án binh bất động
to temporarily stand down one's army in order to wait and see how things develop
áo anh sứt chỉ đường tà Vợ anh chưa có, mẹ già chưa khâu
My shirt's hem thread is torn — I have no wife yet, and my old mother can no longer sew — the bachelor's artful complaint, fishing for a bride.
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