thủ chu đãi thố
Guarding the stump, awaiting the rabbit — one accident enshrined as a strategy.
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thủ khẩu như bình
Guard the mouth like a stoppered jar — sealed speech, walled intentions.
thủ thân vi đại
Guarding one's own body is the great charge — self-preservation as first duty.
thủ thử lưỡng đoan
The mouse at the burrow's lip, in and out — commitment that pokes its head and pulls it back.
thủ vỉ tương ứng
Head and tail answering each other — the two-headed snake's defense; touch either end, the other strikes.
thủy chỉ thanh tắc vô ngư, nhơn chí sát tắc vô đồ
Water too clear keeps no fish; a person too exacting keeps no friends — every bond needs a little silt.
thủy khả dĩ tải châu, diệc khả dĩ phúc châu
Water carries the boat and water capsizes it — the people bear the throne, and can turn it over.
thủy lưu tại hạ
Water flows to the lowest place — and so does every loss; the underling's share is obedience and the bill.
thủy trung lao nguyệt
Trawling the moon from the water — labor spent on a reflection.
thức khuya dậy sớm
Late to bed, early to rise — industry measured in lost sleep.
thức khuya mới biết đêm dài, ở lâu mới biết lòng người có nhân
Stay up late and learn how long the night is; live with someone long and learn whether their heart is kind — duration is the only test.
thừa nước đục thả câu
to fish in troubled waters
thừa phong phá lãng
Riding the wind, breaking the waves — ambition under full sail.
thử nhập thương ngao
The mouse into the granary — landed amid plenty, the Sino-Vietnamese cousin of the mouse in the rice jar.
thực bất sung trường
Food that never fills the gut — poverty measured at the stomach.
ti cung khuất tất
Bowed torso and bended knee — servility in its full Sino-Vietnamese dress.
ti hí mắt lươn
Slit eel's eyes — the narrow gaze folk wisdom assigns to the untrustworthy.
ti-hí mắt lươn
So awful even ghosts complain and demons sulk — repellent past the supernatural's own standards.
tin bạn mất vợ
Trust a friend, lose a wife — the proverb's grimmest audit of misplaced confidence.
tin bợm mất bò
Trust the rogue, lose the ox — confidence invested at the predictable address.
tin sái cổ
to take something (usually a fraudulent claim) as a matter of fact without further inspection; to be too credulous
tiu-nghỉu như mèo mất tai
Crestfallen as a cat with a cropped ear — deflation you can see from across the yard.
tiên giác giác hậu giác
The first-awakened wake the later — whoever sees earlier owes the seeing.
tiên học lễ, hậu học văn
learn manners first, then learn literature
tiên lai hậu đáo
First come, then arrived — precedence by order of appearance; the queue as law.
tiên thiên bất túc
Congenitally insufficient — frail from birth; weak in one's very constitution.
tiên vi chủ, hậu vi khách
First the host, then the guest — precedence at the door, deference at the table.
tiên xử kỉ nhi hậu xử bỉ
Judge yourself before judging others — your own case is always first on the docket.
tiếc thay hột gạo trắng ngần, đã vo nước đục, lại vần than rơm
Pity the pearl-white grain of rice — washed in muddy water, then rolled in straw-char — worth spoiled by wrong handling.
tiếc đứt ruột
Regret that tears the gut — remorse with physical symptoms.
tiến thoái lưỡng nan
it's difficult either to advance or to retreat.
tiếng lành đồn xa, tiếng giữ đồn ba ngày đàng
Good news travels far; bad news travels three days' road faster — reputation's two speeds.
tiếng tơ đồng
The voice of silk and bronze — the sound of stringed music; an old name for the zither's song.
tiền chì hai mặt
Two-faced as a lead coin — brazenness stamped on both sides.
tiền gạo thì của mẹ cha, cái nghiên, cái bút thật là của em
Rice and money are mother's and father's; the inkstone and brush are truly mine — the scholar-child's declaration of estate.
tiền hung hậu kiết
Fierce at first, kind at last — the storm that clears into a good ending.
tiền hậu bất nhất
Before and after never matching — a story, or a person, inconsistent with itself.
tiền làng Đọc, thóc làng Nhữ, chữ làng Chằm
Money in Đọc, rice in Nhữ, letters in Chằm — three villages, three forms of wealth.
tiền mất tật mang
wasting money in something potentially devious in hope of a return but only ends up in a worse off state
tiền nào của đó
Close to the English saying: “If you buy cheaply, you pay dearly.”.
tiền nằm lãi chạy
Money lies still, interest runs — capital asleep while its offspring sprint.
tiền phú hậu bần
First rich, later poor — fortunes, like some builds, front-loaded.
tiền quân hiệu lực
Front-line service to redeem a fault — sent ahead into battle to earn back one's name.
tiền rừng bạc bể
Forest of money, sea of silver — wealth in landscape units.
tiền thầy bỏ túi
The master's fee goes straight in the pocket — paid regardless of the cure.
tiền trao cháo múc
rice congee upon payment
tiền trao ra gà bắt lấy
Cash across, chicken in hand — payment and goods exchanged in the same motion, credit extended to no one.
tiền tài nhân nghĩa tận
When money runs out, kindness and duty end — the friendships that were denominated in cash expire with it.
tiền tài như phấn thổ, nhơn ngãi tự thiên kim
Money is powdered earth; decency is a thousand gold — the exchange rate the market never posts.
tiền tấn hậu kế
The front advances, the rear presses on — as old bamboo falls, shoots rise; the column never runs out of people.
tiền ở trong nhà tiền chửa, tiền ra khỏi cửa tiền đẻ
Money kept home is money pregnant; money out the door is money giving birth — capital multiplies only in circulation.
tiểu nhơn đắc chí
The small man got his wish — petty ambition is soonest satisfied, and insufferable after.
tiểu sự bất nhẫn tắc loạn đại mưu
Small things unborne wreck great designs — the grand plan dies of a petty flare.
tiểu thuyền bất kham trọng tải
A small boat can't bear heavy cargo — capacity is a hull; load past it and sink.
tks
Borrowed “thanks” — thank you, keyboard-sized.
to đầu mà dại
Big-headed and still foolish — grown in size, not in sense.
to6
Toxic — a coded respelling of the English word, with the digit 6 standing in for the "-xic" ending; said of poisonous people, relationships, or vibes, partly to slip past content filters.
toàn tâm toàn ý
with all of one's heart; completely dedicated
trai chê vợ như của đổ xuống sông, gái chê chồng của một mà hai
A man jilting his bride loses goods down the river; a bride jilting her groom repays it double — the old betrothal penalty table.
trai khôn tìm vợ chợ đông Gái khôn tìm chồng giữa chốn ba quân
A wise man picks his wife in the crowded market; a wise woman picks her husband amid the ranks of soldiers — choose where character shows.