lay trời dậy đất
Shaking heaven and heaving earth — an event that astonishes everyone.
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lemỏn
Stuck-up, “extra” — chảnh spelled as citrus: lemon + a Vietnamese hook mark, because chảnh sounds like chanh (lemon).
liễu yếu đào tơ
a young, gentle, and fragile woman
liệu cơm gắp mắm
to be mindful of one's surroundings and circumstances to choose the right options
liệu gió phất cờ
Read the wind before waving the flag — commitment timed to the gust.
lo bò trắng răng
to needlessly worry
lo quanh lo quẩn, lo gì mà lo, lo con bò trắng răng
Worrying whether the ox's teeth are white — anxiety assigned to a problem that does not exist.
loan phượng ăn xoài
The loan and phoenix sharing mangoes — a dream of a perfectly matched union.
long trời lở đất
world-shaking; earthshattering
luật hoa quả
The “law of fruit-ma” — karma, respelled: nhân (cause/karma) also means “kernel”, so the internet swapped in fruit.
luật vua thua lệ làng
In practice, local custom outweighs distant formal authority — the village’s rules beat the king’s law.
làm bộ làm tịch
to feign; to pretend
làm chẳng nên ăn
Leaning on clout and leaning on spirits — importance borrowed from every altar available.
làm công ăn lương
to work and earn, to be a salaryman
làm dâu nhà cả thể, làm rể nhà nhiều con
Daughter-in-law to a grand house, son-in-law to a house of many sons — the two hardest marriages to keep with honor.
làm giàu không khó
'Getting rich isn't hard' — the seminar-hall catchphrase of easy-wealth preachers, quoted mostly in irony.
làm hoa cho người hái, làm gái cho người chơi
Born a flower, picked; born a girl, trifled with — the verse's bleak equation of beauty and use.
làm kiếp trâu
A buffalo's lot — born to haul; the laboring life assigned at birth.
làm lớn phải làm láo
To be big is to answer big — rank means carrying rank's troubles.
làm mướn không công
Hired labor, unpaid — the wage that evaporates between promise and payday.
làm người phải đắn phải đo Phải cân nặng nhẹ, phải dò nông sâu
To be a person is to measure and weigh — balance heavy against light, sound the shallow and the deep.
làm phúc phải tội
Do a kindness, catch a charge — philanthropy billed as the crime.
làm quan thì dễ, làm thể thì khó
Becoming an official is easy; becoming worthy of it is hard — the office arrives faster than the dignity.
làm ruộng ăn cơm nằm, để tằm ăn cơm đứng
The farmer eats lying down; the silkworm-keeper eats standing up — one calendar allows rest, the other never.
làm thần đất ta, làm ma đất người
A god on home soil, a ghost on foreign — talent's rank drops at the border.
làm thủ tục trực tuyến
to check in online
làm trai cho đáng nên trai, khom lưng chống gối gánh hai hạt vừng
Be a man worth the name: back bowed, knees braced — to carry two sesame seeds — the mock-epic of the useless husband.
làm trai lấy được vợ hiền, như cầm đồng tiền mua được của ngon
Marry a virtuous wife and it's a coin that buys good things forever — the husband's bargain of a lifetime.
làm trai quyết chí tu thân, công danh chớ vội, nợ nần chớ lo
Resolve to perfect yourself first, young man — no rush toward fame, no fretting over debts.
làm trâu làm ngựa
to work diligently and submissively
làm đĩ chín phương, để một phương lấy chồng
Work nine directions; keep one for marrying — even the most compromised life reserves one clean quarter.
làm ơn mắc oán
benefactors often get hatred from beneficiaries; no good deed goes unpunished
làm ơn được nên ơn
Live generously, meet generosity — the open hand is answered in kind.
làng Châu Khê tay vàng tay bạc
Châu Khê village, hands of gold and silver — the jewelers' hamlet named by its craft.
lành làm gáo, vỡ làm môi
Whole, it's a dipper; broken, a ladle — every state of the gourd still serves.
lành làm thúng lủng làm mê
Sound, a basket; holed, a sieve-mat — worked in every state, discarded in none.
lành như bụt
Gentle as the Buddha — mildness past provocation.
lành ăn dễ khiến
Scolded in anger, loved in silence — the household's two dialects of care.
lá lành đùm lá rách
the strong protect the weak
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.
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.