ngắm gà khỏa thân
Gazing at the naked chicken — joking euphemism for having died: the boiled offering hen stares back from the altar.
Browse all entries 1735
All languages English Tiếng Việt
ngọc bất trác bất thành khí, nhơn bất học bất tri lý
Uncut jade is no vessel; untaught people know no principle — polish makes the gem and the person.
ngọc lành ai dễ bán rao
Fine jade is never hawked about — true worth, like true virtue, needs no street-crier.
ngọc thạch cu phần
Stone and jade burn together — war's fire checks no credentials; the good perish mixed with the bad.
ngọn rau tất đất
A sprig of greens, an inch of soil — even the smallest sustenance obliges the eater to its giver.
ngọt mật chết ruồi
You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.
ngọt như đường
Sweet as sugar — sweetness beyond argument.
ngồi buồn nhớ mẹ ta xưa Miệng nhai cơm búng, lưỡi lừa cá xương
Idle and sad, I remember my mother of old — chewing rice soft for me, her tongue sorting out the fish bones — tenderness recalled in its smallest act.
ngồi gốc sung há miệng chực rơi
Sitting under the fig with mouth open, waiting for the drop — providence expected to do the chewing too.
ngồi mát ăn bát vàng
Sitting in the shade, eating from a gold bowl — reward without a bead of sweat.
ngồi thúng cất cạp
Borrow by the đấu-measure, repay by the basket — interest at folk-tale rates.
ngồi thúng khôn bề cất thúng
Sitting in the basket, how to lift the basket — the insider's dilemma; you can't carry what you're part of.
ngứa ghẻ đòn ghen
Scabies itch and jealousy's beating — two torments that only worsen with scratching.
ngựa chạy đàng dài
A horse running the long road — instruction galloping past the ears; heard and instantly lost.
ngựa non háu đá
A young horse eager to kick — hot-blooded youth, all spirit and no judgment.
ngựa qua cữa sổ
A horse glimpsed past the window — time at a gallop; the white colt crossing the crack.
ngựa quen đường cũ
to lapse back into one's old ways; to relapse into vice
nhanh như chớp
Quick as lightning — done in a flash.
nhanh như cái cắt
Quick as a shrike's snatch — gone between blink and blink.
nhanh-nhẩu đoảng, thật-thà hư
Brisk but botching, honest but hapless — two virtues, each shipped with its defect.
nhi tôn tự hữu nhi tôn phước
Grandchildren carry their own luck — save yourself the frenzy of enriching descendants; their portion is theirs.
nhiều sãi, không ai đóng cữa chùa
Many monks, and no one shuts the temple gate — everyone's duty is no one's.
nhiều tay vỗ nên bột
Many hands clap the flour into dough — enough people make any task knead itself.
nhiều thóc nhọc xay
More paddy, more milling — every abundance bills you its labor.
nhiễu điều phủ lấy giá gương, người trong một nước phải thương nhau cùng
The red cloth drapes the mirror's stand — people of one country must love one another — the national verse of solidarity.
nhu nhược thắng can cường
The soft outlasts the hard — tongues survive the teeth; yielding is the durable strength.
nhà bao việc
'Busy household!' — the mock-harried shrug of someone with everything and nothing to do.
nhà Bè nước chảy chia hai, ai về Gia Định, đồng Nai thì về
At Nhà Bè the current splits in two: one home to Gia Định, one to Đồng Nai — the southern crossroads of longing.
nhà có Lý Thông
A Lý Thông in the house — trust betrayed by the very person sheltered.
nhà giàu đứt tay cũng bằng ăn mày đổ ruột
A rich man's cut finger equals a beggar's spilled guts — the pampered grieve a scratch like a disemboweling.
nhà giầu tham việc
The rich covet more work — appetite for gain grows with the granary.
nhà mặt phố bố làm to
A house on the high street and a father high up — born holding every advantage worth holding.
nhà nghèo biết con thảo, nước loạn biết tôi ngay
A poor house reveals the devoted child; a realm in chaos, the loyal servant — allegiance is only legible in adversity.
nhà ngói cây mít
An image of settled rural prosperity — a tile-roofed house and jackfruit trees mark a well-established household.
nhà sạch thì mát, bát sạch ngon cơm
it is important to be clean and tidy
nhàn cư vi bất thiện
if people have nothing better to do, they will look for trouble
nháo-nhác như gà lạc mẹ
Scattered as chicks that lost the hen — panic in every direction at once.
nhân lão tâm bất lão
The person ages; the heart does not — the calendar stops at the skin.
nhân nghĩa là chúa muôn đời Bạc tiền là khách qua chơi bấy giờ
Humanity and duty reign forever; silver and gold are guests just passing through — the visitor status of money.
nhân nào, quả nấy
Close to the English saying: “You reap what you sow.”.
nhân viên công nghệ thông tin
IT worker; IT staff member
nhân viên khuân hành lý
porter; luggage attendant
nhân định thắng thiên
Man's determination will conquer nature.
nhìn gà hoá cuốc
Mistaking a chicken for a moorhen — muddling two plainly different things; can't tell right from wrong.
nhìn muốn rụng trứng
A look to make your ovaries drop — swooning admiration, anatomically exaggerated.
nhìn xa trông rộng
Seeing far and looking wide — foresight that spots what others haven't yet imagined.
nhăn như khỉ
Grimacing like a monkey — a face folded into complaint.
nhĩ ngả vô thù
Between you and me, no debt — neither side owes the other a thing.
nhơn bất tri cổ kim, như mã ngưu nhi khâm cứ
Ignorant of past and present, a horse or ox in a robe — without learning, clothing is all that separates.
nhơn bất tri kỳ tử chi ác, bất tri kỳ miêu chi thạc
No parent knows their child's faults, no farmer his rice's height — doting blinds and greed never fills.
nhơn chi tương tử kì ngôn dã thiện, điểu chi tương tử kì minh dã ai
The dying speak kindly, the dying bird cries sorrowfully — at the end, all voices turn true.
nhơn các hữu chí
Each person their own ambition — every heart keeps its private compass.
nhơn cùng tắc biến, vật cực tác phản
Cornered people improvise, cornered things recoil — press anything to its limit and it turns.
nhơn khổ bất tự tri
Our common ailment: not knowing our own measure — self-ignorance, the one universal disease.
nhơn nhơn thành sự
Succeeding by other people's hands — accomplishment that waited to be led there.
nhơn sanh hữu tử như nhựt dạ chi đương nhiên
Death belongs to life as night to day — mortality as plainly natural as sundown.
nhơn sanh thất thập cổ lai hi
Seventy years — rare since antiquity — a long life is a gift, its end no cause for grievance.
nhơn tình khan lảnh noản, diện thượng trục cao đê
Feeling reads warm-and-cold; faces track high-and-low — affection recalibrated daily to your fortunes.
nhơn tử lưu danh, hổ tử lưu bì
A person dies leaving a name, a tiger leaving a skin — the classical form of the epitaph proverb.
nhơn vô thập toàn
No one is complete in all ten parts — perfection isn't a human size.