diff --git a/guix/ui.scm b/guix/ui.scm
index 372733c243..2b62e7abc8 100644
--- a/guix/ui.scm
+++ b/guix/ui.scm
@@ -243,8 +243,8 @@ (define symlink
           ;; information is missing as of Guile 2.0.11, making the exception
           ;; uninformative.)
           (apply throw key proc "~A: ~S"
-                 (append args (list link))
-                 errno))))))
+                 (list (strerror (car errno)) link)
+                 (list errno)))))))
 
 (set! copy-file
   ;; Note: here we use 'set!', not #:replace, because UIs typically use