Es un sin vivir

Cuando temes algo, o estás a menazado, es un sin vivir.
English?

can we translate sinvivir for "What an anguish"

what about "to be on tenterhooks"?
segun la DRAE:
sinvivir.
Estado de angustia que hace vivir con intranquilidad a quien lo sufre.

I think a good translation is : to be on pins and needles.

I dont not what are you trying to say there but I belive that if exist the aguish exist the pain of the soul.

I agree

I've never heard this before - is this AmE ? In BrE, pins and needles are not associated with anxiety. :thinking: Although I'm no longer sure of anything.

Isn't "pins and needles" that horrible feeling you get when blood supply is restored to extremities? i.e. when you sit in an aukward position or kneel down for too long the blood supply is temporarily cut off and when it rushes back you get pin and needles.:thinking:

Yes - which is why I asked about its use above. :)

To be on edge:thinking:

I agree. Pins & needles is a prickly feeling, for instance when the nerves in your arm go dead.

To be on pins and needles is to be anxt ridden. It may not necessarily be negative. Example: You can see the nominated actor on pins and needles just before they announce the winner.

http://www.goenglish.com/OnPinsAndNeedles.asp

Are we in Angst ? Could well be sinvivir ! Me tienes en un sinvivir ! Ich bin so gespannt! (Du machst mich so neugierig)
Translates to : I am on edge ,you arouse my curiosity

It could to works.

Sin vivir when someone get disillusioned.:sad:

Apparently the expression you use in the US but I believe is no longer used in the UK from the looks of it (I certainly never heard it in 24 years) comes from Hamlet. http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_b...ssages/71.html

Well, it's news to me. That ain't BrE. :)

And it ain't the Shakespeare Hamlet either.

It's not Shakesperian but it is British coined by (at least according to brief internet research) author John Poole who wrote something called "Hamlet travestie" back in the early half of the nineteenth century. The Shakespearian parody includes
the phrase pins and needles with the contextual meaning of anxious anticipation.

I have never heard of to be on pins and needles only to have pins and needles.

I would say that sin vivir is a desperate situation that doesn't let you live a full life, like looking after an old relative night and day and never having time to yourself is a sin vivir situation, and isn't related to being on tenterhooks or similar which suggests a positive experience.

Well, then if sin vivir is a condition that borders on pathology, I suppose a term we use and is most likely used in the UK as well would be eaten alive with anxiety/worry :eek:(devorado por ansiedad)

Es un sin vivir implies many things, among them, anguish, desperation, annoyance, anger, fear etc... I suppose there are different expressions depending on what we want to express in Spanish.