Is there an English equivalent to the Persian saying "Now that it's my turn, the sky fell down"?

Question

Suppose there are many people standing in a line to receive an expensive item as a free gift, and everyone receives it except for the last person in the line. The last one is told, "Sorry, the gifts are finished!". This person complains of his bad luck and says (sarcastically):

Oh, no! Now that it's my turn, all the gifts are finished. I don't believe it!

In situations like these, we Iranians have a saying:

Now that it's my turn, the sky fell down.

That is, the worst possible thing happened, and I lost the opportunity. It implies that once I reached the stage of almost realising the opportunity, the situation/condition changed completely, all of a sudden and unbelievably, and this is only because of my bad luck!

Is there any idiom, expression or proverb that conveys a similar meaning to that Persian saying?

I am looking for something that is more general, something that can be used in any situation in which an (important) opportunity has been lost just because of bad luck. This Persian saying places the blame on the bad luck of the given person—someone so unlucky that even the most impossible outcome (the sky falling!) happens just at the moment that they expect to achieve something and causes them to lose a good opportunity.

In my example, that person was very unlucky: if his turn was only one person ahead, or if there was just one extra gift, he would have received a gift. So, he says: "The worst thing happened only to me out of all those people! D**n this luck!"

Answer 1

Just my luck! (humorous)
something that you say when something bad happens to you So he left five minutes before I got here, did he? Just my luck.

source:
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/Just+my+luck!

Answer 2

1. So near , yet so far

2. Close but no cigar

Answer 3

Not exactly a proverb, but there is:

Sod's Law

Sod's law is a name for the axiom that "if something can go wrong, it will", with the further addendum, in British culture, that it will happen at "the worst possible time" (Wikipedia)

It's like Murphy's Law, only worse.

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Something could have gone wrong. (You could've not gotten a gift.)

It did. (You didn't get a gift, after all.)

At the worst possible time. (Just when you were next in line.)

Answer 4

For your "Day late and dollar short" PS: Yes, that is far closer of a idiom than any of the answers I see here thus far.

The biggest problem is that it doesn't have anything specifically to do with a line (queue), or "turns". However, none of the other options presented thus far do either.

What it has over all of them is that it implies there was primarily an issue of timing, where the others don't really. After all, if you showed up early enough to get one place up in line, you would have been OK.

However, there is still a big cultural difference here, in that this statement places the blame on the person, not on the universe at large (which the other answers all do a better job of).

Also, the "dollar short" doesn't quite apply. If I show up at the place without the proper form of payment (you don't take personal checks or credit cards here?), and then they close before I can get back to the front of the line, then it would be perfect.

Still, I typically hear it used in contexts where either the "day late" or the "dollar short" doesn't apply, so you wouldn't be applying it any worse than a typical English speaker does.

Answer 5

"If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all!"

This expression is commonly used for scenarios where someone feels like they only have bad luck. The situation described by the OP is an example where someone thinks they are going to have good luck, only to realize that the only luck they are having is bad.

The expression has been used in a book title:

"If it Weren't for Bad Luck ...: A Study of the Ways the Major Newspapers Frame Stories of Racially Comparative Risk" - by Oscar H. Gandy

and in song lyrics:

GLOOM, DESPAIR AND AGONY ON ME From the TV Show "Hee-Haw" (1969 -1992) by Buck Owens & Roy Clark

First verse:

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Deep, dark depression, excessive misery

If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all

Gloom, despair, and agony on me

Answer 6

"I can't win for losing"

From Dictionary.com:

Someone seems entirely unable to make any sort of success; someone is persistently and distressingly bested : We busted our humps, but we just couldn't win for losing (1970s+)

Typically, someone says this after doing everything correctly to the best of their ability, and failing anyway. That seems analogous to standing in line, patiently waiting your turn, and then being denied the reward arbitrarily.

Answer 7

(All gifts were finished, the situation/condition changed dramatically!)

Pure chance, as in It isn't anyone's fault—it's just the luck of the draw. This expression alludes to the random drawing of a playing card. [ Mid-1900s ]

luck of the draw : means that it is the result of pure chance, with no possibility of choice.

• The samples distributed varied in size and value; it was the luck of the draw.

(dictionary.reference.com)

And my personal favorite is "the Jinx strikes again".

Answer 8

In Britain we say "Typical!" and throw our hand up in the air. That basically means the same thing, although it's a little context-sensitive.

Answer 9

Snatch defeat from the jaws of victory — TFD

To fail, lose, or be defeated despite the appearance that one would be victorious, especially due to a mistake, error, or poor judgment. (An ironic reversal of the more common "snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.").

"We were ahead by nearly 20 points with less than half the quarter remaining—how on earth did we manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory like that?"
"The candidate has led in the polls right up to election day, but with that unfortunate remark last night, he may well have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory."

Answer 10

The English equivalent of the Iranian saying is:

There is many a slip between the cup and the lip

Even when an event seems certain to happen, there could be slips which prevent its occurrence in a totally unexpected manner.

Source:Wikipedia

Answer 11

The saying:

It always rains on my parade.

... comes to mind.

Answer 12

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

It's the commonly used variation of a slogan for Listerine mouthwash, "Often a bridesmaid but never a bride." Snopes.com has an elaborate entry for it that includes a reproduction of an ad with the slogan.

The sentiment apparently came from an older (1882) saying, "always a maiden, never a wife," according to The Facts on File Dictionary of Proverbs.

It doesn't have to refer to weddings. It's for anything one comes close to, but misses. Intrinsically it has more to do with one's worth than one's luck, but it serves in luck-based situations. It can be said of and by men, too, to humorous effect.

Answer 13

I'm surprised this hasn't come up yet, which expresses the irony:

So near, and yet so far

Though less relevant, here are a couple more related to not winning, whether through bad luck or lack of skill

A miss is as good as a mile

The winner takes it all

Answer 14

Although I don't find it listed in books of English idioms, the expression "late to the party" comes up frequently in everyday speech and seems very much on point here. Basically the idea of the expression is "I'm [or You're or He's or She's] late to the party and the best of it is over." People sometimes use "late to the party" metaphorically to mean that someone's contribution to a discussion or process is offered too late to be of any practical use.

Another expression with similar implications is "That train has already left the station," meaning that the opportunity that had existed is now gone.

Answer 15

"I drew the short straw."

This is a reference to how people might randomly assign an undesirable task by taking a number of straws, cutting one to be shorter, and then having each member of the group draw. Whoever draws the short straw has to perform the undesirable task.

Used metaphorically, it means that, among a group of people, you were randomly the unlucky one.

Answer 16

One reply you'll sometimes hear is, "Story of my life", which is shorthand for something like, "The story of my life is bad things like this happening to me."

Here's an example, via Google Books:

[…] “She left a letter for Marc.” He made a face. “Nothing for you, André, sorry.”

“Story of my life,” André mumbled good-naturedly.

[link]

Answer 17

Taking it in a different direction from other answers: someone in this scenario might exclaim "Ah, shoot, that figures."

Literally, it means "I shouldn't be surprised that this happened." It's an expression of the person's awareness of their own bad luck and that this experience is clearly an instance of that.

Alternate forms include "Go figure" and "I should have known (better)".

If you prefer a phrase that doesn't imply a degree of acceptance or understanding of the misfortune, then consider "Well doesn't that take the cake?" This phrase alludes to contests in which the winner's prize is a tasty dessert like a cake. It implies that, were there a contest for "worst experience of the day/of all time" in which this experience was a contestant, it would win the prize cake. In other words, it's a silly way to say "This is the worst experience ever."

Answer 18

If you don't mind being a bit crude, you could use

Shit end of the stick

Example: "Out of tickets? I always get the shit end of the stick!"

or the toned down

Short end of the stick

A situation, opportunity, or outcome which is less favorable than situations, opportunities, or outcomes experienced by or available to others.

Although a strict definition of these relates to getting the bad end of a bargain, they are often used to convey bad luck.

There's also

Shit out of luck

Completely out of luck; in unfortunate circumstances such that all options for achieving one's goal are exhausted; unlucky; screwed.

"There are no tickets left. I guess we're shit out of luck."

Answer 19

Close (Colonel) but no cigar. I think the following case fits to your ‘standing in the line and kicked out of the winning chance.'

The Guardian (April 4, 2012) ran the following article under the headline, “Giant pandas fail to mate," which follows:

The unsuccessful end to one of the briefest but most eagerly hyped trysts in conservation history was announced with a short statement from Edinburgh zoo: their giant pandas had failed to mate. The press release headline said simply: close but no cigar. It had started so well. The panda cams were switched off, the doors carefully locked to outsiders and the "love tunnel" opened. But in the end, despite repeated five-minute bouts of foreplay and coupling in the female's enclosure, Tian Tian and Yang Guang will have to wait another year.

Answer 20

How about "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades", meaning with many objectives in life, it doesn't matter how close you were to winning, losing is losing! (However a hand grenade can still "achieve your objective" if it blows up near your target, and likewise with the game of horseshoes where players compete to toss horseshoes around a post.)

Answer 21

How about: "I won the lottery on the day they ran out of money."

Answer 22

Another variation of "Just my luck" is, "it figures." Like, when it's everyone else's turn, everything is great, but when it's your turn, it figures something has to go wrong.

"Just my luck" is kind of dated and hokey, and unless you're older, you may draw a comment about this. "It figures" is more mainstream at this point.

Generally people express it as "figures" and often pronounce it "figgers," even from more northern states.

Answer 23

"Why does this always happen to me?" is a common expression referencing the speaker's belief that s/he has consistently, exceptionally bad luck.

It is used as the title of a psychological life game by transactional psychologist Eric Berne.

Answer 24

I don't know if this is a saying or an exclamation (or the difference between the two really), but here in the USA, you might hear "That's not fair".

(with the response to that being "Oh well").

Probably with equal probably-ility would be "D'oh!"

Answer 25

All dressed up with nowhere to go

Answer 26

"As soon as you light a cigarette, the bus comes."

A close conceptual double of the Persian phrase, I think.

Answer 27

1. There's a Britishism that is probably not widely used: "that's torn it"

That's torn it - (British, slang) an unexpected event or circumstance that has upset one's plans

Here's a poetic quote (Wilfred Owen, "The Chances")

I mind as 'ow the night before that show
Us five got talkin,—we was in the know.
"Over the top to-morrer; boys, we're for it,
First wave we are, first ruddy wave; that's tore it."
"Ah well," says Jimmy,—an' 'e's seen some scrappin'—
"There ain't no more nor five things as can 'appen,
Ye get knocked out; else wounded—bad or cushy;
Scuppered; or nowt except you're feelin' mushy."

2. And there's also the phrase repeatedly used by the main hero in Kurt Vonnegut's famous novel Slaughterhouse 5: "so it goes". From Wikipedia:

The story continually employs the refrain "so it goes" when death, dying and mortality occur, as a narrative transition to another subject, as a memento mori, as comic relief and to explain the unexplained. It appears 106 times.

Answer 28

One's luck runs out:

(Fig. one's good luck stops. McGraw Hills idioms dictionary)

You can put it this way: Just when it was finally my turn, my luck ran out.

Answer 29

The closest I can think of in this case would be "The early bird gets the worm" which implies that if you let someone else beat you to an oppurtunity they will get it and you won't.