钱钟书说，老年人恋爱，就像老房子着火，没得救。英文中有个类似的表达，也可以用来描述失控的状态，就是垃圾箱着火。

Dumpster fire refers to a person, organization, or situation that is hopelessly and disastrously out of control, or something very difficult that nobody wants to deal with.

“垃圾箱着火”指的是某人、某个机构、或某种情况处于绝望境地，或者处于灾难性地失控状态。也可以指某件事很棘手，没人想处理。

例句：This project is a complete dumpster fire.

这个项目完全就是垃圾箱火灾。

In entertainment or sports, dumpster fire refers to a laughably poor performance usually caused by:

在娱乐或体育领域，“垃圾箱火灾”指的是表现差得可笑，通常是因为如下原因：

1. Lack of planning, preparation or talent.

缺少计划和准备，或缺乏人才

2. Random events that effectively sabotage the effort (i.e., technical problems).

足以破坏掉努力的随机事件(比如技术问题)

例句：

Dumpster Fire is the kindest thing I can say about Oakland's game against San Diego.

奥克兰队对阵圣地亚哥的这场比赛就像一场垃圾箱火灾，这已经是最仁慈的说法了。