tràng giang
Definition
Noun:
- A long river: A poetic and literary term referring to a vast, lengthy, or seemingly endless river. It evokes imagery of great scale and continuous flow.
- A metaphor for something vast, endless, or expansive: Often used figuratively to describe something of immense breadth or duration, such as time, space, or a lengthy speech.
Adjective (in compound forms):
- Prolix; verbose; long-winded: Used to describe speech or writing that is excessively lengthy and wordy. This meaning is often found in the four-character idiom "tràng giang đại hải".
Usage Examples
Noun:
- Nhìn dòng tràng giang trước mặt, lòng tôi dâng lên nỗi nhớ nhà. (Looking at the long river before me, my heart swelled with homesickness.)
- Thời gian như một dải tràng giang vô tận. (Time is like an endless, long river.)
Adjective (in idiom):
- Bài diễn văn của ông ấy dài như tràng giang đại hải. (His speech was as long-winded as a great river and sea.)
Advanced Usage
- The word is deeply poetic and is famously used as the title of a well-known 20th-century Vietnamese poem, by Huy Cận, which expresses a profound sense of solitude and cosmic melancholy before nature's vastness.
Variants and Related Words
- Tràng giang đại hải (idiom): Literally "long river, great sea." It is a fixed idiom used to criticize speech or writing for being tediously long and verbose.
Synonyms
- Long river: great river, endless stream.
- Prolix: verbose, wordy, lengthy, rambling.
Related Idioms
- Tràng giang đại hải: Describes extremely verbose and tedious speech or writing.
- Đừng giảng bài theo kiểu tràng giang đại hải, học sinh sẽ buồn ngủ. (Don't lecture in a long-winded, verbose style; the students will fall asleep.)