Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
My luck/fortune got in prison
English answer:
My luck is in chains
English term
Morocco
Literature,Marketing & Legal Translation
Native in: Arabic (Variants: Moroccan, UAE, Kuwaiti, Najdi, Standard-Arabian (MSA), Hassaniya) 
, Berber (Other) (Variants: Standard Moroccan Tamazight, Tarifit , Tashelhit , Riffian, Central Atlas Tamazight, Tamazight ) 
Works in: English to Arabic, French to Arabic, Arabic to English, and 21 more.
My luck/fortune got in prison
Does the following sentence make sense to you as a native English speaker?
"My luck got in prison."
Some of the music lyrics (they're not in order):
" - My luck got in prison. May God release it.
- My luck got in prison and I've not seen it
- My luck got in prison while I'm struggling."
Please bear in mind that I'm translating a Moroccan Music into English. Feel free to edit the input -- You can paraphrase it and so on.
| 3 | My luck is in chains |
Sarah Lewis-Morgan
|
Non-PRO (1): Tony M
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Responses
Germany
BA in English. Passionate about language
Native in: English
Works in: German to English, English
Discussion
I suspect the speaker is really lamenting that their luck seems to have run out of them; if this is the case, then it would be better to say something "It locks as though my luck is in prison" or "My luck seems to be in prison".
But I repeat, the whol idea of 'prisons' sits uneasily: prison is a place where we send people to punish them; you can't punish luck, nor would it have been evil.
If you want to think about the personification of 'luck', consider the song "Luck be a lady tonight". But I think the whole metpahor is wrong — maybe Tomasso's comment about 'imprisoned', in the sense of 'shut away' is closer to what you need...?
(repeat) is no longer within reach, (repeat) God will help me endure.
(a person would include a well-known phrase) ? Inshalla ان شاء الله
(some words not correct, حظا سعيدا ، مستقبلي مسجون ، الله رحيم ، فليطلق سراحه.
(كرر) لم يعد قريبًا ، (كرر) سيساعدني الله على الاحتمال.
I can't help thinking, though, that the 'prison' metphor simply won't work in EN, even if it does in Moroccan. I've had a similar issue with an Iranian friend of mine, who was trying to translate a metaphor in his own language too literally, and it simply didn't work in EN.
'got' is related the word 'have' — but we don't talk about 'having prison', but rather 'going to prison'
So it maybe ought to be "My luck went to prison" — but then again, the simple past may not really be the right tense here: perhaps it should be "My luck has gone to prison" (maybe '...seems to have...'?) — or since people don't usually go to prison of their own accord, deliberately, it might be better to say "My luck got sent to prison".
I think the only way to find just the right wording will be if you tell us exactly the nuance of meaning you are trying to convey? Are you trying to say "my luck seems to have run out?" — it's not obvious why 'prison' is at all relevant here?