Đời người sống mấy gang tay, hơi đâu cặm cụi cả ngày lẫn đêm

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Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

Life is short, so one should not waste time on trivial matters

Literally: Human life lives a few spans of arms, what breath is spent toiling all day and night

Examples

Ông già thường nói với cháu trai rằng đời người sống mấy gang tay, hơi đâu cặm cụi cả ngày lẫn đêmThe old man often told his grandson that life is short, so one should not waste time on trivial matters

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Headword listed in the vdict.com proverb dictionary index (discovery source; headword only — no source content copied). Entered as candidate 2026-08-05; definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-09; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “Đời người sống mấy gang tay, hơi đâu cặm cụi cả ngày lẫn đêm” mean?

Life is short, so one should not waste time on trivial matters Literally: Human life lives a few spans of arms, what breath is spent toiling all day and night

Is “Đời người sống mấy gang tay, hơi đâu cặm cụi cả ngày lẫn đêm” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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