σερνόμουν

14:34 Aug 5, 2016 

Yes to your messy keyboard, as well.

14:32 Aug 5, 2016 

Yes, YOUR WORK was a mess. Agree!! But you would be in a mess if you carried on producing work that was a mess!!5

14:23 Aug 5, 2016 

My teachers always told my parents that my work was a mess

13:53 Aug 5, 2016 

* Pardon the italics below...
This tiny keyboard I'm temporarily working on is a mess</>

13:51 Aug 5, 2016 

"I wasn't sure that it meant anything stronger than this"
For all i know, it doesn't necessarily do.
And for all i know, "I was a mess" doesn't necessarily do either.
According to transphy, however, that's just me not grasping the dramatic connotations of the english phrase, as opposed to "I was in</> a mess"...
Native English speakers are welcome to challenge his point.
If indeed he's right, it could be that I'm more acquainted to American English when it comes to slang and the like, and I can certainly think of dozoens of movies where "I was mess", "He's a mess" or whatever is used almost in a half-sarcastic manner, as if to imply that the person in question ain't worth one's concern, since his situation - be it mental, emotional physical, you name it - is hopeless either way...

12:10 Aug 5, 2016 

I've taken note of all the comments.
Perhaps the text I quoted is slightly misleading in that it begins with a mention of the accident - I would emphasise that this is the only mention of the accident in a long document. In context, it looks like just one more trouble among many! There is nothing to suggest that he suffered serious injury. What's mainly on his mind is a bad family situation.
Both 'I was in a mess' and 'I was a mess' are worth considering - in fact I was going to add a comment about this yesterday, but didn't have time. In particular, I was going to point out that 'I was a mess' suggests emotional meltdown.
I guessed that σερνόμουν could mean something like 'I was hanging around' (perhaps implying: not knowing what to do / where to turn next). I wasn't sure that it meant anything stronger than this. Now, in the light of all the answers here, I'd say that it does!

11:22 Aug 5, 2016 

You may disagree, but in the two forms there is a distinction. Look at your examples in the site you quoted. Nos. 1to 3 included, bear my argument succinctly. Anyway, that is how understand the usage of these 2 phrases are used by the population of the UK. i don't wish to argue it any more. You will not change my mind, in this case.

11:14 Aug 5, 2016 

Sorry, transphy. I would disagree, but don't take my word. Look up the Oxford Dictionary of English (sense 2.1) or thousands of internet examples:
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/mess
https://www.google.gr/search?q="I was a mess emotionally"&so...

11:09 Aug 5, 2016 

'I was a mess', implies bad personal injuries, blood everywhere, bones smashed, face disfigured, to put it crudely! 'I was in a mess' implies 'trouble, inconvenience etc.'. Take your pick!!!

10:37 Aug 5, 2016 

Nope. I was a mess, it is, as in "the guy's a mess..."

22:41 Aug 3, 2016 

' I was IN a mess', rather than ' I was a mess'.

22:24 Aug 3, 2016 

"just got to pick myself up off the floor" - I came to think of this ol' Dylan-line while revising the thread.
Anyway... thanks a lot for the preference.

11:31 Aug 3, 2016 

Many thanks, everyone, for the various suggestions. Of course, there are many ways this could be translated, but I have the feeling that 'I was a mess' gets to the essence, the central meaning. Perhaps the after-effects of the motorbike accident are all part of the picture, though there is nothing to indicate that it was a particularly serious accident - there's only this passing reference to it (in 60+ pages!), so it just seems to be one of many tribulations.

16:56 Jul 27, 2016 

It is not a sense you will find defined in a dictionary exactly in the meaning given here. At best, a dictionary definition would describe someone moving about with difficulty because of tiredness or illness. So here you have to make the logical leap from having his clothes thrown out to drunk driving, and would know that "σερνόμουν" refers to a psychological condition of weakness.