生活になぶられた、男の子は自殺した。
My translation:
Tormented by daily life, the boy killed himself.
My other translation:
The boy who was tormented by daily life killed himself.
I was wondering if there is any nuance when using the passive voice in descriptive relative clauses, and if some of my word choices like 「生活」 and 「なぶる」 sound natural in this context.
Unfortunately, なぶる is very rare in modern Japanese, except that the compound なぶり殺す is occasionally used.
I'm not sure about the exact nuance of "tormented by daily life", but if I have to find a transitive verb that fits this situation, I would choose 打ちのめす or 打ちひしぐ. The latter is mainly used in its passive form (打ちひしがれる).
- つらい日常生活に打ちのめされた男の子は、自殺してしまった。
- つらい日常生活に打ちひしがれた男の子は、自殺してしまった。
There is no problem with using passive voice in a relative clause. But don't insert a comma between the noun and the relative clause.
And generally speaking, Japanese language tends to avoid inanimate subjects with transitive verbs. See this discussion, or examples here. If you can replace the subject with 少年, you can say this in various ways using 「思い悩む」「絶望する」, etc.
