The translation of "Karma"

Question

I want to know the colloquial chinese translation of "Karma".

The conversation example:

Bob: She had financial problem for 30 years and never got a decent job besides labor.
Me: I guess it's karma. <== I need translation of karma in this context.

Note: the karma here refers to fruit/result of her past karma in buddhism.

UPDATE:

Second case:

One day, my dad just lost $5 in his pocket when walking home. My mom heard that and she said "I remember once you took $5 on the street, so I guess it's karma".

Answer 1

我想这就是命吧。

因果报应 and 造业, 作业 or even 作孽 suggest that she did some bad thing in the past, and you are sneered at her life. 命 is more neutral and shows some sympathy.

Answer 2

I guess it's karma！ 我想这就是报应吧！

Karma = 因果报应

Answer 3

@ah_hau's answer has a good generic phrase for the typical English usage (of treating "karma" as some sort of cosmic justice system). It suggests that the woman might have done something evil 30 years ago, and has been suffering misfortune because of it.

But if you want to specify that her misfortune is payback for deeds in a previous life, there's a common phrase you should use. It is specialised for this context: 上辈子做了什么孽, literally, "did some bad karma in a previous life".

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For the second case, are you saying "it's karma" in the sense that he had the good luck of finding $5 earlier, so losing $5 now is just balancing it out?

If that's the case, there's a few set phrases you can use:

• 风水轮流转: "good/bad luck goes around."
• 三十年河东，三十年河西: "fortune changes"
• 有得有失: "you get some, you lose some".
• 有输有赢: "you win some you lose some".

For example, your sentence could be translated as: 你不是在路上捡过五块钱吗? 风水轮流转嘛!

Answer 4

在佛教中应翻译为“业”。

例如：这就是“业报”。

而佛教中的“因”是hetu，“果”是vipaka。

Answer 5

For 1st sentence: 也許是她自作孽. <- This is an incorrect translation. Please see Ma Ming's answer.

For 2nd sentence: "報應" is a bit too heavy in this case. We can say "現眼報" (spoken Cantonese) or "眼前報" (written Chinese);