"Life is a mess..."

[halecounty]

My friends and I work in construction and manufacturing. Over the last few years we have developed a saying:

"Life is a mess. People suck. And then you die."

On its face this seems like a depressing outlook, but we have found that keeping this saying in mind helps us make complex projects succeed.

That being said, this saying is better spoken than written. It's too harsh when you write it out in English. We have a hunch that it will look better written in idiomatic Latin.

Oh wise Latin Discussion Forum members, could you please help us with a translation?

 

[Pacifica]

English slang can be hard to render in Latin. Something close enough might be:

Vita turbida est, homines mali/molesti; deinde morimur.

"Life is messy, people are bad/troublesome; and then we die."

 

[cinefactus]

what about something like
vita tumultuata, hominibus calumniatis, morimur

 

[syntaxianus]

For "mess" another possibility might be confusio deformis (repulsive disorder).

So "Vita est confusio deformis would be "Life is a mess."

 

[Pacifica]

hominibus calumniatis

"After people have calumniated (us)"? Isn't that rather more specific than the original idea of "people suck"?

 

[cinefactus]

Looking for a suitable deponent verb.
masturbatis?

 

[Pacifica]

...? Why?

 

[CSGD]

With a slight O Fortuna reference:

vita detestabilis,
homines spernendi.
tunc exspectat debilîs
tempus moriendi.

 

[syntaxianus]

To capture some of the intensity of "people suck" : consider

homines [sunt] taeterrimi /
homines [sunt] perodiosi /
homines [sunt] nequissimi /
homines [sunt] futilissimi

 

[halecounty]

Oh wise Latin Discussion Forum members, thank you for these translations. The O Fortuna reference made me laugh, and I think Pacifica's translation will fit our needs nicely.

Again thank you very much!