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14:04 Jul 26, 2009
English to Latin translations [PRO] General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters
English term or phrase:it's hard to give a shit these days
The phrase is from the Lou Reed song Romeo and Juliet:
I'll take Manhattan in a garbage bag
with Latin written on it that says
"it's hard to give a shit these days"
Obviously the translation should reflect the crass tenor of the original.
I should have also said that there is nothing courteous about the phrase. It is plain rude. Telling someone that you don't give a shit about what they think is a sure way to end a conversation and perhaps even start a fistfight.
The basic meaning of the phrase is "it is difficult to care about anything or anyone these days", i.e. it is now much easier to be apathetic. So, it is closer to the second meaning you suggest but is even broader.
Just a clarification. According to the Urban dictionary, there are 2 senses of the expression "I don't give a shit". One is "a courtesy way of telling someone to leave you alone", and the other "a popular phrase to be used when you are not interested in what someone else says or believes. " I suppose you refer to the 1st sense, and you mean "It is difficult to be alone these days", am I right?
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Answers
14 days confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
hodierno tempore difficile est aliquod flocci facere
Explanation: In Plautus and Terence 'flocci facere' is used to express indifference or apathy to someone or something. Cicero uses the negative --'non flocci facere'--in his Epistulae to express a poor opinion of somone or something. 'Floccus' is a tuft of wool.
Luis' Catullan suggestion--'non assis facere' ('not to value worth a penny')--employs the same grammatical construction (genitive of price or value) and suggests essentially the same idea. There is no literal translation in Latin (or Greek) for "It's hard to give a shit these days", but our suggestions do convey the same, or at least a very similar, notion.
Joseph J. Brazauskas United States Local time: 15:33 Specializes in field Native speaker of: English, Spanish PRO pts in category: 16
54 days confidence:
his temporibus non facile flocci faci quiddam potest
Explanation: Just an alternative.
Ivo Volt Estonia Local time: 22:33 Specializes in field Native speaker of: Estonian
Explanation: Literally, It's hard to care about anyone these days.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 4 days (2009-07-31 11:02:12 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
No, it doesn't work that way. It is true, Catullus uses that expression in a poem, and in that context means "you don't care at all", but: the literal-adapted translation of "non assis facis" is "you don't give it even the value of a cent". The "even" is understood. So, "non assis facis" and "assis facere" are not opposite expressions. Assis facere means to give something the value of a cent (you don't care), and "non assis facere" is worse, you wouldn't give even a cent for it (you don't care at all).
So, you couldn't use "assis facis" in the sense of caring, because it means just the opposite.
-------------------------------------------------- Note added at 56 days (2009-09-21 08:58:36 GMT) --------------------------------------------------
Joseph is right, alicuius can refer either to "anyone" or "anything", so my translation is all the more suitable for your purpose, Konrad, because it can be applied not only to people, but also to things.
Luis Antonio de Larrauri Local time: 21:33 Works in field Native speaker of: Spanish PRO pts in category: 12
Notes to answerer
Asker: I found another suggestion on the internet and wonder what you think of it:
"non assis facis" from Catullus can be translated as "doesn't give a shit/damn" so we could get something like autem assis facere difficilis, dropping the est because it's understood.
Explanation:
according to the United States of Poetry.Org (the film and book "combines images from the breakthrough TV series on which it is based with over 80 poems to reveal this nation as never before") and features Lou Reed's Romeo Had Juliette song, now called a poem, in the Love And Sex section.
The translation workplace 
peer agreement (net): +1
