# I busted my ass for you



## rottenmilkatja

How would you say, "I can't believe my daughter told me that she hates me!  I have busted my ass for her for 25 years!"


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## Q-cumber

What is the target language?  And please state your gender.


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## Maroseika

rottenmilkatja said:


> How would you say, "I can't believe my daughter told me that she hates me! I have busted my ass for her for 25 years!"


Я надрывался ради неё 25 лет.


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## Kolan

It's said more rough and strong, indeed. Literally, *я рвал/разрывал **задницу/жопу **за/для неё (в течение) 25 лет. *A woman would unlikely talk in such a rude manner, unless she is extremely disturbed.


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## Setwale_Charm

I`m afraid you are hopelessly behind the times , Kolan Nowadays, a woman, especially in Russia, can say anything like that and even worse. However, I would rather use *рвал* than *разрывал* here, the subtle undertones are rather different. The first implies what we mean here, the second rather implies you were purposefully and deliberately doing something to your bootom part.


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## Q-cumber

I second the *Setwale_Charm's* opinion:  я рвала *** (надрывала) задницу is the correct wording. "Разрывала" isn't applicable here. Another options would be: "из шкуры вон лезла", "в лепёшку расшибалась", "надрывалась", "пахала на неё"...


* Я doubt masculine *рвал* is OK for ...katja (Катя).


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## Kolan

Q-cumber said:


> "Разрывала" isn't applicable here. Another options would be: "из шкуры вон лезла", "в лепёшку расшибалась", "надрывалась", "пахала на неё"...


*Разрывать *- не в смысле _раскапывать_, а несов. от *разорвать*. Подчёркивает, благодаря грамматической форме, многократные циклические усилия по разрыванию с запредельным напряжением в течение всех 25 лет, причём жопа, судя по всему, до сих пор цела.


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## Maroseika

Kolan said:


> It's said more rough and strong, indeed. Literally, *я рвал/разрывал **задницу/жопу **за/для неё (в течение) 25 лет. *A woman would unlikely talk in such a rude manner, unless she is extremely disturbed.


I'm far not sure your translation is correct. Literal translation scarcely can express equal emotion levels of the two languages.


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## Q-cumber

Kolan said:


> *Разрывать *- не в смысле _раскапывать_, а несов. от *разорвать*.



Мне бы даже в голову не пришло значение "раскапывать".  Просто слово "надрывать" имеет переносное значение "повреждать себе что-то чрезмерными усилиями".  А "разрывать" такого значения не предполагает, поэтому предложенное словосочетание воспринимается несколько...фривольно. 

PS Кстати сказать, автор вопроса куда-то бесследно исчезла. Видимо потребность произносить эту фразу сошла на нет.


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## Kolan

Q-cumber said:


> PS Кстати сказать, автор вопроса куда-то бесследно исчезла. Видимо потребность произносить эту фразу сошла на нет.


Я боюсь предположить _худшее_.


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## Q-cumber

Kolan said:


> Я боюсь предположить _худшее_.



А именно?


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## Kolan

Q-cumber said:


> А именно?


Что после 25 лет ситуация, описанная глаголом несовершенного вида, достигла-таки терминальной фазы.


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## Anatoli

I worked/busted my ass off... - Я вкалывал.../ я надрывался. Quite an equivalent. No need to mention parts of the body, IMHO.


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## Kolan

Anatoli said:


> I worked/busted my ass off... - Я вкалывал.../ я надрывался. Quite an equivalent.


Здесь по-английски - законченное действие, по-русски = *надорвался* (_надрывался _- несов, _вкалывал _- несов) В примере автора - тоже законченное, но не одноразово, а многократно (бессчётное число) на  протяжении 25 лет. Поэтому *разорвать *(сов) грамматически точнее, чем *рвать *(несов). *Надорвать *- совершенного вида, но семантически неточно, так как имеется в виду полный разрыв (задницы).


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## Anatoli

I don't agree with you, Kolan. There's no such meaning in the English sentence. One could also have said "I have been busting..." for 25 years - in that case it renders a continuous and incomplete action. It doesn't mean I managed to "bust it open" or completed the job.  English verbs don't have the notion of perfection or imperfection.


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## Q-cumber

Anatoli said:


> I worked/busted my ass off... - Я вкалывал.../ я надрывался. Quite an equivalent. No need to mention parts of the body, IMHO.



Since all these Russian expressions mentioned above are quite equivalents, any of them is applicable here. Actually, the choice might depend on a degree of the sayer's angriness.


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## Anatoli

True but in English they use "ass"  more often than in Russian and the Russian most common equivalents don't have them:

move your ass here
get your ass there

You can make expressions with the Russian equivalent but they are not as common. "Bust my ass" or "bust my balls" are very colloquial expressions and not as angry "рвать задницу". They feel the same to me as надрываться, горбатиться.

If you wish to swear to convey the style of the original, you can use obscenities in other expressions.


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## Crescent

Anatoli said:


> True but in English they use "ass"  more often than in Russian and the Russian most common equivalents don't have them:
> 
> move your ass here
> get your ass there
> 
> You can make expressions with the Russian equivalent but they are not as common. "Bust my ass" or "bust my balls" are very colloquial expressions and not as angry "рвать задницу". They feel the same to me as надрываться, горбатиться.
> 
> If you wish to swear to convey the style of the original, you can use obscenities in other expressions.


I totally agree with Anatoli, here! 

I didn't even think that the russian equivalent of ''_to bust one's ass_'' has anything to do with the English phrase!  I remember seeing Kolan use this expression in another thread, previously, where I recall that the subject was more or less... равенство на работе. 

But here, I think the general sense of the phrase is that the Mother has worked really hard for her daughter (who is 25, evidently) and she is indignified as to the ingratitude that she has recieved from her.
(sadly parents-children relationships are often like this.. )

Another variant I would suggest is: _Я двадцать пять лет пахала на неё!_
Although it is pretty much the same as: надрывалась...etc.



> I`m afraid you are hopelessly behind the times , Kolan Nowadays, a woman, especially in Russia, can say anything like that and even worse.


Really?! ... Looks like I haven't been home in a long, long time, too...


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## Kolan

Anatoli said:


> I don't agree with you, Kolan. There's no such meaning in the English sentence. One could also have said "I have been busting..." for 25 years - in that case it renders a continuous and incomplete action. It doesn't mean I managed to "bust it open" or completed the job.


Well, she said "*I busted*" as a complete action, not "*I have been busting*" as an incomplete continuous one, why not to translate as it reads?


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## Kolan

Anatoli said:


> True but in English they use "ass"  more often than in Russian and the Russian most common equivalents don't have them:
> 
> move your ass here
> get your ass there
> 
> You can make expressions with the Russian equivalent but they are not as common. "Bust my ass" or "bust my balls" are very colloquial expressions and not as angry "рвать задницу". They feel the same to me as надрываться, горбатиться.
> 
> If you wish to swear to convey the style of the original, you can use obscenities in other expressions.


*Bust my ass* - is not very common in Canada, it means that someone worked over mesure. (Otherwise, it would just say _I (continuously) worked hard). _It also bears a very sorrow feeling and is not just impolite. _

Move your ass - _sounds offensive, I would not speak like that to anyone unless I want to fight.

_Get you ass there_ - informal and rude for no reason.


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## Setwale_Charm

I think the original phrase is not in quite good English. Normally, we should say: I was busting my ass for 25 years... or I have been busting (if you still are)... or: I had been busting my ass.. (if you no longer are).

But the author is not a native speaker after all.


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## Kolan

Setwale_Charm said:


> I think the original phrase is not in quite good English. Normally, we should say: I was busting my ass for 25 years... or I have been busting (if you still are)... or: I had been busting my ass.. (if you no longer are).
> 
> But the author is not a native speaker after all.


It is not an academic English, but one can say that in order to describe the situation when a mother had to work every day over mesure (busting her ass completely each time) during 25 years. I believe a native speaker could say that. 

"I was busting" would mean that her ass never completely busted during 25 years like a background for the entire story. By now something else could come up.

"I have been busting..." - still busting after 25 years, never completed.

"I had been busting..." - was busting, never completed, no longer the point (should say since when).

In all these 3 cases above her ass would still keep its intergity.


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## Setwale_Charm

Well, it would in any case cos it`s figurative use.
 I think, the best Russian translation would be something like:надрывала задницу, because working hard is надрываться.


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