Classical Chinese sentence

[mint.]

Hello,

I am writing a paper and I need a translation of one sentence from Taiwan waiji (台灣外記), namely:

 

人生如朝露耳，若不能揚眉吐氣，虛度歲月，羞作骯髒丈夫！

 

After saying this, the person decides to change his way of living and go on the adventure. It reads "Life is as fleeting as a morning dew...", but the rest of the metaphor is a mystery to me. I don't really get the 揚眉吐氣 part. Could anybody help?

 

Thank you in advance.

[skylee]

Take a look -

吐氣揚眉 https://www.moedict.tw/%E5%90%90%E6%B0%A3%E6%8F%9A%E7%9C%89

The sentence in #1 is not classical Chinese.

[mint.]

Sooo... I still don't really get this sentence, but is it something along the lines of: "If I cannot obtain happiness through my grief, and fritter my time, then it is shameful to do dirty work"（probably the everyday manual job he was doing... or does it refer to his chosen job, of a bandit? or does 丈夫 mean "英武有志節的男子" in this context?）

 

I have some crazy translations going on in my head right now, bc English is not my first language, sorry. It gets complicated.

I'm sorry, I cannot give you any more context. I just know the guy was working manually and one day he decided to become a righteous bandit. 

[Publius]

揚眉吐氣：形容被壓抑的心情得到舒展而快活如意。http://www.zdic.net/c/c/8b/151868.htm

骯髒：高亢剛直貌。http://www.zdic.net/c/e/157/343330.htm

丈夫：指成年男子。http://www.zdic.net/c/8/3/6184.htm

[Publius]

人生如朝露耳，若不能揚眉吐氣，虛度歲月，羞作骯髒丈夫！

Life is as fleeting as the morning dew. If one cannot hold his head high, if one idles his time away, it would be shameful to call himself a righteous man.

[mint.]

Thank you so much! Now, when I look at it, I would never have understood it this way. Especially the 羞作骯髒丈夫 part. Oh well, I've always had some problems with gudai... Thanks a lot!