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I've tried to translate the lyrics of one of my favorite English-language songs into Croatian. A part of the lyrics is: The country that you died for, mate, you wouldn't know it now. The future that we dreamed of, mate, got all twisted up somehow.

But what does it got twisted up mean? I looked it up in several dictionaries and I couldn't find it. I translated it as izjalovila, which is the word Croatians use for a plan that turned out to be impossible to realize. It rhymes in my translation, and I guess it's correct, but I am not sure.

What do you think?

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    What "got all twisted up" means is that the future didn't turn out the way they thought it would—instead, a "twisted" (and from context, clearly worse) version was realized. "Impossible to realize" is certainly a reasonable translation for it, especially if it rhymes.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 11:36
  • 'Convoluted' is a very formal and more 'adjectivy' synonym, 'screwed up' less formal and more 'verby'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 11:40
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    Consider if you are riding a bicycle while wearing a scarf. The scarf falls off and gets twisted up in the bike's rear wheel. Before you can stop it's become twisted so badly that you can't untangle it -- you end up having to cut if off.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 12:42
  • @PeterShor, I would be interested in how you came to know that? And what does 'up' mean in "twisted up"? Is it a part of a phrasal verb that needs to be memorized, or is there a meaning to it?
    – FlatAssembler
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 17:14
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    From the dictionary: twisted: Forced out of its natural or proper shape; crumpled. So metaphorically, it's not the proper future, not the one that we intended. As for up, there's a phrasal verb twist up, which means to make something twisted. But twisted up and twisted would mean the same thing here.
    – Peter Shor
    Commented Jun 1, 2020 at 20:24

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