All languages English Tiếng Việt
I am the spiny water-caltrop — white within, black without; taste before you judge, and find me sweet — plainness pleading its hidden worth.
I am a well at the roadside — the refined wash their faces, the coarse wash their feet — one worth, two usages.
I am a burst of rain — one drop falls in the well, one in the flower garden; one lands in a mansion, one in the plowed field — a woman's fate scattered by chance.
I am a sliver of dried areca — the refined covet the thin, the coarse covet the thick — every taste claims its cut.
I am a duckweed leaf — upstream, downstream, wherever the current tips — a fate with no rudder of its own.
I am a bần fruit adrift — wind battering, waves tossing, with no shore to wash up on — the floating-fate lament.
I am the durian fruit — some call me foul, others call me delicious — no middle opinion exists.
I am a bolt of scarlet silk — prized in many quarters, loved in many more — the sought-after bride's verse.
I am a bolt of peach silk — fluttering in the open market, into whose hands I cannot say — beauty at the mercy of the buyer.
I am chili ripening on the plant — the brighter the skin, the hotter the heart within.
Married as the shared second wife — a shuttlecock everyone's head pushes through — polygamy from below.
A body through a hundred battles — veteran to the bone.
A body that makes its own life miserable — self-inflicted servitude to one's own habits.
The eel's lot doesn't mind a muddy eye — those born to the mud can't be precious about dirt.
A donkey's frame favors the load — the drudge who volunteers for heavier.
Collect much, remit little — the village-clerk's arithmetic, skimming between the taking and the passing on.
through day and night
Dangling like a squash blossom — tattered, drooping, coming apart.
A worthy wife spares her husband misfortunes; a devoted child eases the father's heart — the household's two great mercies.
"Extra ice" — café Vietnamese; its siblings "ít đá" (less ice) and "không đá" (no ice) complete the drink-tuning trio.
If you like it, scoot closer — fancy it? Then move; the modern shrug that desire owes action.
The ways of the state of Trịnh — wanton, licentious carryings-on, after the proverbially loose ancient kingdom.
"Ah, let it go" — the shrug that keeps Vietnam sane; not every battle deserves you.
The gentle "come on, don't be like that" — used to soothe someone sulking, soften an apology, or coax a yes out of a no.
Office resigned, return to the village — power set down where it was first picked up.
Better never to have known — for every measure of knowing, that measure of heartache.
"Welp, it's over" — the deadpan verdict when a small disaster completes itself before your eyes.
"Fine, okay then" — concession with a visible sigh; you've stopped arguing, not necessarily agreed.
Through the literature, broad in the histories — deeply and widely read.
empty vessels make the most sound
Each to their own delight — every pleasure legitimate to its own keeper.
Marry a wife for more than a face — the match is with character; complexion is weather.
Thăm ngàn — Vietnamized Thai 'tham-ngan' (ทำงาน): to work, to grind; popularized by Thai-drama fandom.
Rising in office and swelling in fortune — the double blessing of the ambitious.
Fragrant as a jackfruit segment — praise for skin sweet and golden.
love means whipping, hate means giving sweetness and gentleness
Loving a husband means bending with him — swallow the bitter, savor the salt-warm; a wife's shared weather.
Loving her child she scrimps dawn to dusk — rice bundled in a shirt-corner, porridge wrapped in taro leaf.
The bow-wounded bird flies high from any bent branch — once burned, forever wary.
To love can be to harm — rescue billed to the rescuer; affection that costs its giver.
Missing father and mother like needles in the gut — a boat without a rudder; a child without parents, who shows the way.
to love others as much as oneself
In 'love,' the operative word is 'for' — to care is to put yourself out for someone.
Wounding morals and rotting custom — conduct that corrupts the public air.
Pity the cinnamon tree mid-forest — its heat unknown, its fragrance unguessed — worth wasted on the wilderness.
Pity the turtle's lot — bearing the crane at the đình, bearing the stele at the pagoda — burdens sacred and endless alike.
Pity womankind — older by two or three years, and still ranked the junior.
to beat brutally
may you have a safe journey; bon voyage
Gold above, rice-bran below — everything from the finest to the cheapest.
Massive learning, thorough scholarship — erudition beyond the common measure.
To drop the Facebook "care" react (the hugging heart) — a one-tap gesture of sympathy, sincere or performative.
To give up something small in order to gain something bigger — a small bait for a large catch.
Release the minnow to catch the snakehead — small bait surrendered for the bigger fish.
release a small fish to catch a big fish
To hit the "haha" react — sometimes real laughter, often the internet's driest form of mockery; context decides which.
Setting leeches on the softshell turtle — feeding one pest to another; a children's chasing game.
Treating human lives as roadside weeds — power that mows people without counting them.
Shallow schemes lose to a woman's wits — underestimate her intelligence and pay the tuition.
Squat as a duck — built low to the ground.