How do I express "I don’t envy you" properly in Chinese?

Question

It's basically translated to

我不羡慕你。

My Chinese colleague has a difficult task, and maybe have to work overtime. When I consoled him,

我不羡慕你 (I don’t envy you)。

He asked back,

为什么要羡慕我？

I realized it's not a proper expression in Chinese.

Answer 1

Maybe forget "envy":

幸亏我不是你。
Luckily, I am not you.

or

Rather you than me! (Not very consoling though!)

Answer 2

羡慕 do not in all circumstances share the specific Western notion of "envy" because it has elements of positivity in Chinese as it includes elements of "admiration / look up to", unlike the Western notion of negativity associated with "envy", it being one of the "Seven Deadly Sins", (pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony and sloth)

不羡慕 somehow sounds weird as it implies "I don't admire you", hence the confusing inquiry "为什么要羡慕我?" because when you say "I don't envy / admire you", it implies that you could under certain circumstances "admire / look up to" him.

Therefore when he asked "为什么要羡慕我?", he meant "Why do you want to admire me?"

Hence there is not just a linguistic problem here but a socio-cultural one because of the innate cultural differences when it comes to expressing specific terms with regards to human interactions.

Thus terms like "envy", pity", "grudge", are perfectly palatable in certain circumstances and social interactions within a certain socio-cultural group, but if haphazardly used as direct translations into another language with different cultural, (even religious) outlook, the received meanings would be colored in unexpected ways.

In the present case lets say you use "我真的同情你", "You really do have my sympathy"; (without a smile of course), or, "你好可怜啊", "You are so pitiful", (with a melancholic shake of the head), could work.

But if directly translated into English those expressions may sound "affected", "condescending", "sarcastic" even, just as to not, 羡慕, "envy / admire" someone's misfortune sounds strange in Chinese.

Answer 3

Wayne Cheah's answer pointed out why the direct translation doesn't work in Chinese.

I suggest a common phrase "(做)你也不容易啊。" (being you is not easy). It expresses a sense of' sympathy' similar to "I don't envy you" in English.

Both "嗯，(做)你也不容易啊。" and "I don't envy you" imply "I don't want to be in your shoes" and "it must be hard for you"

Edit:

這也難為你了 (this must be hard for you) also works

Answer 4

I think envy has the underlined meaning here：

I can't find a concise expression in Chinese for the same sense. But is just opposite of @Pedroski 's answer. "I don't envy you." means:

我没有庆幸我不是你（，所以自己不用加班）。

Or in English:

I am not glad for that I am not you so don't need to work overtime.

Answer 5

C: 我不羡慕你。

A: 为什么要羡慕我？

The answer seems improper but rather quite common in daily conversations. It is a technique of using reverse questioning (反問) to - 1) terminate the conservation, either he was under a bad mood or too busy, the tune of speaking won't be too friendly (沒好氣), and was hinting "shut-up, leave me alone". 2) extend the conservation if you have a more than just co-worker relationship with him, and the response can be considered a 俏皮話 in order to receive further talk-backs (反擊).

Note that "我不羡慕你。" has the implication of "幸災樂禍" - "Glad to see you are in a situation I've no envy of, ha ha!" So don't say it to coworkers with who you don't have a close/working relationship with.

In such circumstance, "又加班吶? 真不幸!" should be acceptable to all.

Answer 6

I don't think the key point is the cultural difference between “羡慕” being positive and "envy" being negative, because you can use "嫉妒," which is also a negative term. However, it still sounds strange to say "我不嫉妒你" to a Chinese person.

Actually, the main purpose of the sentence "I don't envy you" in your case is to express affirmation of another person's sorrow or suffering. In this context, you could say "你真的太难了," just like Tang Ho's answer.