Thread: How do you say "The sacrifice of hiding in a lie" in Russian?

Originally Posted by OceanEyes

And yet again I have another thought: Is 'Утопая' a participle of 'to sink'? Or is it just understood or a different word altogether?

It is a participle of verb "утопать", which has a direct meaning "to sink, to drown", but it is used mostly in indirect sense. Google translates it as "wallow".

Originally Posted by OceanEyes

I was under the impression I might be able to use 'жить' (in the right form of course) instead, while still keeping 'я жертвую собой' in hopes of saying "Living in a lie, I sacrifice myself".

Yes, to use "жить" is a good way too. For example "Жить во лжи - себя губить" that means "To live in lie is to ruin oneself" and looks much more like a Russian aphorism. Though "жертвовать" will never work here as there is no way in Russian to give a negative sense to the phrase "жертвовать собой". In Russian "жертвовать собой" means only "to be a hero".