xuân xanh

Mười bảy xuân xanh, cô gái cài một bông hoa mai vào mái tóc.

Definition

1. Noun (Literary/Poetic):
   • Youthful years; the springtime of life: A poetic term referring to the period of youth, specifically the age of a young person, often a young woman. It evokes the freshness, beauty, and vitality associated with spring ("xuân") and the color green ("xanh"), symbolizing new life and prime age.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Cô ấy đang ở độ tuổi xuân xanh. (She is in the bloom of youth.)
  • Xuân xanh trăng tròn lẻ. (A youthful age of sixteen.) [A classical poetic line]
  • Mười bảy xuân xanh. (Seventeen years of age.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is almost exclusively used in literary, poetic, or formal descriptive contexts to elegantly denote a person's young age, particularly when emphasizing their beauty or marriageable age in traditional settings.
• It is often found in classical Vietnamese poetry and literature, and in formal writing about one's youth.

Variants and Related Words

• Tuổi xuân (n): Youthful age; one's youth.
  • Cô ấy tràn đầy sức sống của tuổi xuân. (She is full of the vitality of youth.)
• Tuổi thanh xuân (n): Youth; young adulthood.
  • Những ký ức đẹp của tuổi thanh xuân. (Beautiful memories of youth.)

Synonyms

• Youth: The period between childhood and adult age.
• Adolescence: The transitional phase of growth between childhood and adulthood.
• Prime of youth: The best part of one's young life.

Related Idioms

• Xuân xanh chưa tới / Xuân xanh đương độ: To be in the prime of one's youth; to be young and at a suitable age.
  • Nàng còn xuân xanh đương độ. (She is still in the prime of her youth.)