người đầu bạc tiễn kẻ đầu xanh

Vietnamese

Etymology

Literally "the silvery-headed one sees off the green-headed one". bạc (“silver”) is used to describe gray hair, which is thought to be silvery or white rather than gray. xanh means "grue" (either green or blue), but is probably related to thanh xuân (“youth”, literally “grue spring”), which is likely to be derived from the association of "youth" with "green" and "spring", both of which are in turn associated with the element "Wood" (or "Tree", or "Plant"), the element of "freshness" or "vitality", etc. in Wu Xing. Compare Chinese 白髮人送黑髮人 / 白发人送黑发人 (báifàrén sòng hēifàrén).

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ŋɨəj˨˩ ʔɗəw˨˩ ʔɓaːk̚˧˨ʔ tiən˦ˀ˥ kɛ˧˩ ʔɗəw˨˩ sajŋ̟˧˧]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [ŋɨj˦˩ ʔɗəw˦˩ ʔɓaːk̚˨˩ʔ tiəŋ˧˨ kɛ˧˨ ʔɗəw˦˩ sɛɲ˧˧]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [ŋɨj˨˩ ʔɗəw˨˩ ʔɓaːk̚˨˩˨ tiəŋ˨˩˦ kɛ˨˩˦ ʔɗəw˨˩ san˧˧]

Phrase

người đầu bạc tiễn kẻ đầu xanh

"the young perish and the old linger"; an elderly person has/had to suffer the anguish of watching their young loved one die, because they think it should be the other way around