vênh-váo như bố vợ phải đấm
Smug as a father-in-law after the punch — pride bruised and doubled down; unearned swagger at its most infamous.
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All languages English Tiếng Việt
vì chồng nên phải gắng công Nào ai da sắt xương đồng chi đây
For a husband's sake she strains at the work — no one was born with iron skin and bronze bones.
vì sao
(adverb) why
vì đầu heo gánh gộc chuối
Carrying banana stumps for the pig's-head feast — dignity spent on an undignified errand, for duty's sake.
ví dầu con phụng bay qua Mẹ nói con gà con cũng nói theo
Should a phoenix sail past, mother calls it a chicken — and the child agrees — filial deference measured against the evidence of one's own eyes.
ví dầu cầu ván
'Suppose the bridge were planked...' — the lullaby's soft once-upon-a-wish for lovelier things.
ví dầu cầu ván đóng đinh Cầu tre lắc lẻo gập ghềnh khó đi. Khó đi mẹ dắt con đi Con đi trường học mẹ đi trường đời
Though the plank bridge is nailed firm and the bamboo bridge sways and pitches — hard going, mother leads the child: the child walks to school, mother walks the school of life.
ví dầu mẹ chẳng có chi Chỉ con với mẹ chẳng khi nào rời
Though mother owns nothing at all, mother and child are never parted — poverty cannot divide that pair.
vò đầu bứt tai
to not know how to deal with a complicated problem or affair
vô cai quản bất đắc hành hạ
No authority, no ordering about — command runs only inside its own fence.
vô công bất thụ lộc
No service, no stipend — reward accepted without work shames the taker.
vô cố nhi đắc thiên kim bất tao đại phước tất hữu đại họa
A thousand gold unearned: if not great luck, then great disaster — the causeless windfall always invoices later.
vô hoạn nạn, bất anh hùng
No trial, no hero — greatness is minted only in misfortune.
vô hữu bất như kỉ dã
Befriend none beneath yourself — the old counsel to climb by company; friends are ladders or weights.
vô phược kê chi lực
Not strength enough to tie a chicken — feebleness in its proverbial unit.
vô quan nhứt thân khinh, hữu tử vạn sự túc
No office, a light body; a child, and all is complete — the two blessings: freedom from rank, fullness of family.
vô sản toàn thế giới, đoàn kết lại
Workers of the world, unite!
vô sản tất cả các nước, đoàn kết lại
Workers of the world, unite!
vô thưởng vô phạt
inconsequential; meaningless
vô tiểu nhơn bất thành quân tử
No small men, no gentlemen — each rank exists by the other's contrast; the ladder needs both ends.
vô trung sanh hữu
Conjuring something from nothing — fabrication as creation myth.
vô tửu bất thành lễ
No wine, no ceremony — the Vietnamese rite runs on the cup; betel opens, liquor seals.
vô vận bất năng tự đạt
Without luck, no one arrives — effort rows the boat, but fortune is the tide.
vô địa lập chùy
No ground to plant an awl — poverty measured to the awl-point.
vô độc bất trượng phu
No ruthlessness, no great man — the cynic's rule that greatness requires a hard heart.
võng anh đi trước, võng nàng theo sau
His palanquin ahead, hers following behind — the wedding procession's picture of paired honor.
văn chương đựng không đầy lá mít, võ thì đá không bể nổi mảnh sành, nghe vua treo bảng cũng xòng xành ra thi. Bảng đề không biết chữ chi, mài nghiên, mút bút có khi hết ngày
Letters that wouldn't fill a jackfruit leaf, force that couldn't crack a potsherd — yet hearing of the exam, off he swaggers to sit it — the immortal satire of the unqualified candidate.
văn dĩ tải đạo
Literature exists to carry the Way — writing as the vehicle of principle.
văn hay chẳng luận đặt dài
Good writing needs no length — quality declares itself in the first hearing.
văn thi phú lục chẳng hay Trở về làng cũ, học cày cho xong
No luck with essays, verse or rhyme-prose — go home to the old village and learn to plow properly — the failed scholar's honest retreat.
văn trị võ công
Civil order and martial merit — governing well in peace and prevailing in war.
vĩnh kết đồng tâm
Forever knotted, one heart — the wedding wish stitched into every red banner.
vạ gió tai bay
Misfortune on the wind, calamity flying past — disaster that simply lands, unaddressed to anyone.
vạch xuất phát và vạch đích
starting line and finish line
vạn sự khởi đầu nan
It is the first step that counts.
vạn sự như ý
May you have all that you desire!
vạn tội bất như bần
Ten thousand offenses, none like poverty — want is the crime the world punishes hardest.
vải thưa che mắt thánh
Thin gauze over the saint's eyes — a veil that fools no one it was hung for.
vấn xá cầu điền, nguyên vô đại chí
Asking after houses and fields — the small dream that convicts a man of no great one.
vận nghèo đi tới chỗ mô cũng nghèo
A poor streak follows every road — carry bad luck anywhere and unpack the same bags.
vận động viên điền kinh
track-and-field athlete
vật bất ly thân
Keep your things on your body — property parted from its person recruits its own thief.
vật bất tề vật chi tình dã
Things are unequal by nature — prices differ because things do; so ruled Mencius.
vật qui cổ chủ
Goods return to their old owner — possession circles home; heaven's property returns to earth.
vật đổi sao dời
everything changes
vắn cổ kêu chẳng thấu trời
A short neck's cry never reaches heaven — the small wronged voice, lost below the clouds.
vắng mợ chợ vẫn đông
no-one is indispensable, nobody is so important that others cannot do without
vắng ngắt như chùa Bà Đanh
Silent as Bà Đanh's temple — desertion so complete it became the national standard of emptiness.
vắng như chùa
Crowded as a market — humanity at full jostle.
vắng như chùa Bà Đanh
completely desolate, devoid of people's visitations
vắng đàn-ông quạnh nhà, vắng đàn-bà quạnh bếp
No man home, the house is desolate; no woman, the kitchen is — each absence darkens its own room.
vắt chày ra nước
Wringing water from a pestle — thrift squeezed past the possible.
vắt chân chữ ngũ
Used to indicate the state of being comfortably confident, of one's legs in a shape of the letter 五: unconstrained
vặt mũi không đủ đút miệng
Plucking from the nose can't fill the mouth — income structurally short of appetite.
vẽ bò bán bóng
Drawing an ox and selling its shadow — commerce in pictures of value.
vẽ mày vẽ mặt
Painting brows and face — cosmetics applied to reputation as much as skin.
vẽ rắn thêm chân
Painting legs on the snake — ruining a finished thing with superfluous flourishes.
vẽ đường cho hươu chạy
Drawing the deer its escape route — helpfully mapping the wrong for the wrongdoer.
về nhà hỏi trẻ
Home truths, ask the children — the household's most honest witnesses are its smallest.
vệ quốc hộ quân
Guarding the state and shielding the army — holding fast the framework of the nation.