Тяжёлый год – Hoy estoy peor que ayer – Fuck 2020
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Last night, I was talking to my dad and telling him I was concerned that 2021 would make us miss 2020. He responded with a Russian saying I’d never heard before: “On average, we live pretty well: worse than last year, but definitely better than next year.”
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) September 28, 2020
The discussion on twitter pointed to a lyrical version of the Russian attitude in Semyon Slepakov's Тяжёлый год (lyrics and translation available at the link):
And an Argentinian version in La Mosca Tsé-Tsé's Hoy Estoy Peor Que Ayer:
This reminded me of a recent English approximation from Avenue Beat, which presents the (apparently un-ironic) American belief that next year might actually be better:
I expect that readers will know relevant sayings and songs from other languages and cultures.
Karl Weber said,
October 5, 2020 @ 5:18 am
John McCain used to say, "It's always darkest before it goes totally black."
Rose Eneri said,
October 5, 2020 @ 8:07 am
Great Russian saying!
“On average, we live pretty well: worse than last year, but definitely better than next year.”
Pretty much the definition of Socialism.
Thomas Hutcheson said,
October 5, 2020 @ 8:56 am
My attitude is that we need to slow the rate of deterioration before we can think again about improvement.
Daniel Barkalow said,
October 5, 2020 @ 1:28 pm
It wouldn't matter much if 2021 made us miss 2020; we've missed most of 2020 anyway, due to COVID-19…
But, more seriously, I don't think we're likely to switch from missing 2018 to any later year until one is actually better or a whole lot of time goes by.
D.O. said,
October 5, 2020 @ 6:50 pm
The good thing for 2020 is that the pestilence is named with "-19". The kids of the future would think that it is 2019 that everyone hates.
Viseguy said,
October 5, 2020 @ 7:28 pm
Plus ça change, plus ça empire.
That's the French that Google Translate gave me when I entered, "The more it changes, the worse it gets." Based on current events, I'm tempted to adopt it as my Latin motto: Et ultra non mutat, quod peius accipit." My three years of Latin did not extend to this usage, but the more I don't look at it, the less I fail to understand it.
Viseguy said,
October 5, 2020 @ 7:31 pm
Neglected to say that the Latin came from Google Translate as well.
Emilia said,
October 6, 2020 @ 2:16 am
Old army blessing: May every day be better than the next.
Terpomo said,
October 6, 2020 @ 12:28 pm
Google Translate tends to produce gibberish in Latin.
Kaleberg said,
October 8, 2020 @ 11:25 pm
There's a theorem in calculus saying that it is always darkest before it starts getting lighter again. Mathematicians assure me that it is an amazingly profound statement regarding the nature of the continuum. I have no idea of how it goes in Latin.
JTL said,
October 14, 2020 @ 11:20 pm
Any chance Hank Green is a reader here? He made a very similar joke on YouTube today. To paragraph, in deciding whether it was unseasonably warm this year, on the one hand 2020 will be one of the hottest years of the last hundred. On the other hand, it will be one of the coolest years of the next hundred.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8FDOSIJUk8 (at about 20 seconds).