quần ngư tranh thực
A shoal of fish fighting for the feed — a free-for-all over the same scrap.
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quần tam tụ ngũ
Clustering in threes, knotting in fives — little knots of people gathering to gossip or scheme.
quỉ khốc thần sầu
Ghosts weep and spirits mourn — writing so fine the supernatural grieves; or wickedness so great it appalls them.
quốc dĩ dân vi bổn
The nation takes the people as its root — no populace, no state; the base firm, the country calm.
quốc kêu mùa hè
The moorhen calls all summer — persistence itself, in one bird's throat.
quốc kế dân sinh
State planning and the people's livelihood — the great matters of nation and daily bread.
quỷ khốc thần sầu
Ghosts weep and spirits grieve — dreadful enough to appall the supernatural.
quỷ nhập tràng
A corpse possessed at the shrouding — the dead rising deranged; someone acting past all belief.
quỷ tha ma bắt
goddamn; curse; screw
ra dẻ
Acting like it; putting on airs — pretending to a role you haven’t earned.
ra luồn vào cúi
Stooping out, bowing in — a career conducted entirely bent over.
ra môn ra khoai
to do something with clear results
ra ngõ gặp giai
Meet a man at the gate — the errand-day omen, read at the first face out the door.
ra sông mới biết cạn sâu, ở trong lạch hói, biết đâu mà dò
Only on the river do you learn shallow from deep; in the creeks and backwaters there's no sounding at all.
ra đầu ra đũa
Head-and-chopsticks clear — laid out properly from start to finish.
rau nào sâu ấy
Every vegetable has its own worm — each nature attracts its matching pest; like finds like.
rau răm đất cứng dễ bứng khó trồng, dù thương cho lắm cũng chồng người ta
Knotweed grows in hard ground — easy to uproot, hard to transplant; love her as you may, she is another man's wife.
rep 1:1
The top replica grade — a counterfeit built to pass for the original at a glance (90-95% faithful), still fake where it counts: materials, durability, and the details a trained eye spots.
rep ib
Shop-speak for "replying in your DMs" — "rep" (reply) + "ib" (inbox); where the price talk moves when the comments get crowded.
ru con con ngủ cho rồi, mẹ ra chỗ vắng, mẹ ngồi than thân
Sleep, child, sleep — so mother can slip to an empty corner and mourn her own lot — the lullaby's hidden second verse.
ru con, con ngủ cho lành, cho mẹ gánh nước rửa bành cho voi. Muốn coi, lên núi mà coi, coi Bà Triệu tướng cưỡi voi đánh cồng
Sleep sound, child, while mother hauls water to wash the elephant's howdah — want to see? Climb the mountain and watch Lady Triệu ride her elephant and strike the gong — the lullaby that carries a woman general.
ru con, con ngủ cho say, để u dệt vải cho thầy nhuộm nâu. Cắt quần cắt áo u khâu, để thầy con mặc cấy bừa mùa chiêm
Sleep deep, child, while mother weaves and father dyes the brown — cutting trousers and shirts she sews, for father to wear plowing the fifth-month season — the household loom in a lullaby.
rung cây nhát khỉ
Shaking the tree to scare the monkey — theater of menace with nothing behind it.
ruồi bâu kiến đậu
to let unattended and expose to the elements
ruộng ai thì nấy đắp bờ, duyên ai nấy gặp, đừng chờ uổng công
Each farmer banks their own field; each meets their own fate — waiting for another's is labor wasted.
ruộng cả ao liền
Broad fields and an adjoining pond — the picture of landed comfort.
ruộng giữa đồng, chồng giữa làng
A field mid-plain, a husband mid-village — the two best placements a woman can secure.
ruộng sâu trâu cầy
Deep fields and a plowing buffalo — the farmer's whole fortune in one inventory.
ruộng ta ta cấy, ta cày,
Our field we transplant, our field we plow — labor's plain claim to its own ground.
ruột bỏ ra da bỏ vào
Guts tossed out, skin taken in — strangers honored above blood.
ruột bỏ ra, da bọc vào
Guts thrown out, strangers' skin wrapped in — neglecting one's own kin while fawning on outsiders.
ruột cắt ruột không đành
Gut cannot cut gut — flesh of one's flesh is unseverable.
ruột để ngoài da
wearing one's heart on one's sleeve
rào giậu ngăn sân
Fencing hedges and blocking yards — walls thrown up to keep people apart.
rào sau đón trước
Fence behind, ambush ahead — precautions posted in both directions.
rào trước đón sau
to cleverly point out something infelicitous in advance so that the listener will be understanding when it occurs and find it difficult to fault the speaker; to be careful with one's words; to be on the defensive
ráng vàng trời nắng, ráng trắng trời mưa
Golden clouds at dusk mean sun, white clouds mean rain — the herder's forecast written on the horizon.
rát như cáy
Stinging like a fiddler-crab's pinch — smarting, raw, insistent pain.
râu ông cầm bà
His beard in her hand — the henpecked household's coat of arms.
râu ông nọ cầm bà kia
This gentleman's beard held to that lady's chin — parts of two stories jammed into one; attribution scrambled.
râu ông nọ cắm cằm bà kia
a square peg in a round hole
rão như cháo
Slack as spilled porridge — worked to collapse, past raising one's head.
rít nhiều chân
A centipede has many legs — the many-propped never topple; helpers are legs.
rót nước không chừa cặn
Pouring without sparing the dregs — emptying everything out, down to the last insult.
răng cắn phải lưỡi
The teeth bite the tongue — the closest companions still wound each other.
răng mà
Central Vietnamese "how come...?" — opens a puzzled or reproachful question the way standard speech uses "sao mà".
răng môi lẫn lộn
Teeth and lips in the wrong places — a face rearranged by a beating.
răng rứa
The Central "what's up? / how come?" — a two-word bundle of the region's question words, equivalent to standard "sao vậy".
rước voi dầy mồ
Walking the elephant home over the ancestors' graves — importing the ruin that tramples what's most yours.
rượu làng Tơ, cờ Mộ Trạch
Wine from Tơ village, chess from Mộ Trạch — each place its mastery.
rượu mời không uống, muốn uống rượu phạt
to be forced to do something after initially turning down a request to do that thing
rượu nhạt uống lắm cũng say, người khôn nói lắm dẫu hay cũng nhàm
Weak wine still intoxicates in quantity; a wise man's talk, however fine, palls with repetition — moderation even in eloquence.
rượu sớm cờ trưa
Morning wine and midday chess — the untroubled routine of a gentleman of leisure.
rượu sớm trà trưa
Morning wine and midday tea — the leisured rounds of an idle gentleman.
rạch mặt ăn vạ
Slashing one's own face to press a claim — self-inflicted injury as extortion theater.
rảnh không
"You free?" — the two-syllable plan-starter; everything from coffee to a favor begins here.
rảnh rỗi sinh nông nổi
if people have nothing better to do, they'll do stupid or harmful things
rậm người hơn rậm cỏ
Better thick with people than thick with weeds — land warmed by dwellers outranks land gone wild.
rậm râu sâu mắt
Thick beard, deep-set eyes — the physiognomy chart's warning entry.
rắn già rắn lột, ta già ta cột đầu săng
Old snakes shed their skins; old men get bound in coffin-boards — renewal is the serpent's privilege, not ours.
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