# je ne savais pas quoi foutre de ma vie



## ShakeSauvage

Hello,

I'm trying to say this in English [_foutre_ is slang for _faire_].

Context: a young cop explains to his colleague that he joined the police internship program they're both in, because he had no idea what kind of job he could do (let alone had he any business career plans —of course— nor any specific interests in general).

_*"I had no clue what to do with my life"*_ seems like the proper translation.
But I'm writing English subtitles for a French movie and this is far too long a sentence.

The dialogue goes as follows:

_C'est mon frangin, il est keuf, c'est lui qui m'en a parlé, des ADS _[adjoints de sécurité]_.
*Moi, je savais pas quoi foutre de ma vie.*
ADS, c'est payé._

My try: 

[... for ...] stands for [_number of characters in my proposition_ VS _number of characters I am allotted_] **
** it is acceptable for me to use an extra 3 characters more than allotted for each subtitle.

_My brother’s a cop. Told me ‘bout the job._ [42 for 39]
*Was lost with my life.* [22 for 21]    OR    *My life was clueless.* [21 for 21]
_Being a cop means wages._ [24 for 22]

Thanks!


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## jetset

Didn't know...
what to do with my  life
what the fuck should I do with my life
What the fuck did I want to do with my life
Had no fucking idea about what to do with my life

Difficile de cadrer avec la longueur imposée..."Had no clue what to do" (22) peut-être.
Je n'utiliserais pas "lost", qui a un sens plus large, mais je peux me tromper.


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## ShakeSauvage

jetset said:


> Didn't know...
> what to do with my  life
> what the fuck should I do with my life
> What the fuck did I want to do with my life
> Had no fucking idea about what to do with my life


Well, thank you Phil.
Your suggestions will certainly be useful to other WR Forum members (which is very cool, actually), but not to me, since they all exceed the 21 characters I'm allotted here ^^


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## jetset

J'ai édité, avec une proposition à 22.


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## ShakeSauvage

jetset said:


> J'ai édité, avec une proposition à 22.


Merci, c'est super gentil !

Je suis d'accord avec toi, ma proposition "_ *w**as lost with my life"* _ne me satisfait pas non plus, et tu as raison, elle est trop vague : le gars pourrait être paumé dans plein d'autres domaines que celui du boulot.

_*"Had no clue what to do"* _est évidemment bien mieux (merci !), mais je me demande s'il ne serait pas indispensable d'ajouter_ "with my life"_ à la fin.

Maybe a native English speaker could help us figure out if, in this context, _*"Had no clue what to do"* _would be sufficient to understand the general idea or if_ *"Had no clue what to do with my life"* _would be necessary to fully get the meaning of the young cop's line of dialogue? (In which case, that's 15 characters too much, and I'll have to come up with another solution.)


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## LARSAY

"I would not use the word "fuck", much more vulgar than the idea of  "foutre" (le mot français relatif à "fuck" would be "branler"). I would say "what the hell I would do with my life"


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## jetset

Il y a aussi l'expression '_to have no direction in life_', je me demande si on peut rephraser '_had no life direction_' (21).


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## Kelly B

(shorten the whole block with "cops get paid" at the end)


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## ShakeSauvage

LARSAY said:


> "I would not use the word "fuck", much more vulgar than the idea of "foutre" (le mot français relatif à "fuck" would be "branler"). I would say "what the hell I would do with my life"


Thank you. I'm sorry to disagree with you, but your slang references seem to be a little mixed up ^^
No worries, of course.
Branler / Fuck > _"j'en ai rien à branler"_ = _"I don't give a fuck"_.
Here, saying *"what the fuck should I do with my life?"*, for instance, is a good way to put the slang tone of the word _"foutre"_ somewhere else in the sentence, when translating *"je ne savais pas quoi foutre de ma vie" *(the problem with this suggestion is that the past tense is not respected, though).


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## ShakeSauvage

jetset said:


> Il y a aussi l'expression '_to have no direction in life_', je me demande si on peut rephraser '_had no life direction_' (21).


Hey ! Pas mal...
J'espère que nos amis anglophones pourront nous donner leur avis.


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## Le Gallois bilingue

_“I’d no sodding idea about my future ”  _I think “fucking” is too harsh a translation from the context you provide.


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## ShakeSauvage

Kelly B said:


> (shorten the whole block with "cops get paid" at the end)


Thank you!!!
_"Cops get paid"_ is way better than my original "_being a cop means wages"._

The problem is I can't merge all (or some of) the lines of dialogue into one (or more) block(s).
There must be one subtitle for _*"Moi, je savais pas quoi foutre de ma vie."*_ [21] and one for "_ADS, c'est payé." _[21]

Your thoughts about the line of dialogue that gives this thread its title would be very helpful.    

With the help of @jetset, two choices came up:

_*"I had no clue what to do."*_ [25 instead of 21]
_*"I had no life direction."* _[24 instead of 21]


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## ShakeSauvage

Le Gallois bilingue said:


> _“I’d no sodding idea about my future”_


Thanks! I never heard this expression before so I'm glad I learned it.
The problem is that it's 15 character too long, unfortunately.


Le Gallois bilingue said:


> I think “fucking” is too harsh a translation from the context you provide.


@LARSAY: Sorry, my mistake, then ^^
(But I insist about your interpretation of "_branler"_ / "_fuck"_, though:
_"j'en ai rien à branler"_ = _"I don't give a fuck"_, which does not apply to this context.)


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## LARSAY

Well, I cannot stop you to think that "foutre" et "fuck" are at the same level of vulgarity !


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## Keith Bradford

"My life was going nowhere".  25 letters/spaces.


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## Laurent2018

My life wasn't a dime worth


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## ShakeSauvage

Keith Bradford said:


> *"My life was going nowhere"*.  25 letters/spaces.





Laurent2018 said:


> *"My life wasn't a dime worth."*



These are good ideas, thanks.
However, they might be too "general", so to speak. 
@jetset: if I did not misunderstand you, this is what you suggested my first try _*"I was lost with my life"*_ implied as well.
And this leads me to consider that _*"I had no life direction"*_, you suggested later, also conveys the same "life-in-general" idea.

The character is young. It is common, for someone his age, not to know what to do with one's life.
He joined the police internship program not because he wanted to (let alone had he a true calling for such a demanding job), but because his brother encouraged him to do so and also because he had no other alternative nor any desire to do something else.

By *"je ne savais pas quoi foutre de ma vie"*, he actually refers to his life in general, for sure, but more specifically to his professional life.
Therefore I wonder if an expression that would emphasize the professional aspect of the matter would not be the best option in this case.
This takes me back to _*"I had no clue what to do"*_ (without adding _*"with my life"*_ afterwards).

Would you agree on that or have any suggestion that'd be more appropriate?

I am most probably nit-picking here. I am also aware that I am sort of going back and forth from one intention to another.
Most importantly, I would like to thank you all for your precious help.
I hope my tendency to hesitate is not getting too annoying, and that this juggling-with-words-and-meanings can be fun to you.
There are 1.256 subtitles in this full-of-tricks and challenging movie, and I only post on WR Forums about the most difficult parts I am struggling with. And, of course, I hope the subjects I "dig into", with your help, are or shall be useful to other Members here.

Thanks again.


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## rrose17

If you drop the "I" it stays perfectly understandable and natural sounding.
_Had no clue what to do_
Or maybe
_My life was a joke
Cops get a salary_


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## ShakeSauvage

rrose17 said:


> If you drop the "I" it stays perfectly understandable and natural sounding.
> _Had no clue what to do_
> Or maybe
> _My life was a joke
> Cops get a salary_


Thank you very much!
Is _"salary"_ more appropriate than _"wages"_?
The director has opted for American English subtitles and if I'm not mistaken, these two terms seem to be both AE and BE.
(It would be perfect if that's actually the case.)


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## rrose17

To me, wages doesn’t sound natural here at all.


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## le chat noir

Juste au cas où, qu'est-ce que vous diriez de "I was all at sea. Cops make good money" ? C'est approximatif mais au moins c'est court


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## wildan1

Le Gallois bilingue said:


> _“I’d no sodding idea about my future ” _I think “fucking” is too harsh a translation from the context you provide.


This is a strictly British way to say it--_"sodding"_ would not be understood by most AE-speakers. For us _"sod"_ is a harmless word referring to grass-growing.

You can get around _"fucking"_ by saying _"frigging" -- I have no frigging idea about my future _(or better_: friggin'_).

Also, for American audiences, in broadcast TV or movies you can use _hell_ easily; but to include _"fuck" _(one of the forbidden "seven dirty words") it will get bleeped on broadcast TV, and it may push up the  official age limitation for movies from PG to PG-13.


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## ShakeSauvage

le chat noir said:


> Juste au cas où, qu'est-ce que vous diriez de "I was all at sea" ? C'est approximatif mais au moins c'est court


C'est une très belle expression. Peut-être un peu trop poétique pour ce jeune homme qui est loin d'être un littéraire et s'exprime de façon très familière, non ?


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## rrose17

le chat noir said:


> Juste au cas où, qu'est-ce que vous diriez de "I was all at sea. Cops make good money" ?


TO me this sounds too poetic, too wistful, for the context.

edit: crossed with ShakeSauvage


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## le chat noir

ShakeSauvage said:


> C'est une très belle expression. Peut-être un peu trop poétique pour ce jeune homme qui est loin d'être un littéraire et s'exprime de façon très familière, non ?


Oui c'est vrai. Alors peut-être "my life was stuck." (18) ?


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## JClaudeK

ShakeSauvage said:


> Peut-être un peu trop poétique pour ce jeune homme qui est loin d'être un littéraire


Pourtant 


wildan1 said:


> _to be at sea
> to  be at a loss _


est donné comme équivalent de "être dans le flou" qui n'est pas spécialement poétique.

"_to  be at a loss" _alors?


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## Le Gallois bilingue

Je vous propose autrement “_Stuck in a bloody rut!”._


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## Locape

J'ai bien peur que 'bloody' soit trop BE et pas assez AE, non ?


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## ShakeSauvage

Locape said:


> J'ai bien peur que 'bloody' soit trop BE et pas assez AE, non ?


J'en ai bien peur aussi.
Un grand nombre de fois, j'ai dû me forcer à ne pas l'employer (j'aime beaucoup cet adjectif) dans mes sous-titres...


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## ShakeSauvage

le chat noir said:


> "my life was stuck." (18) ?





JClaudeK said:


> "_to  be at a loss" _alors?





Le Gallois bilingue said:


> “_Stuck in a bloody rut!”._


All of these are music to my ears.
But I guess _*"Had no clue what to do"*_ will be just perfect for that line.
 merci  thank you  vielen dank  obrigado  grazie mille


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