XPost: alt.usage.english, sci.lang
By the way: Has English an expression something like:
It's no use crying over spilt milk
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the proverb—"it's no use crying over spilt milk"—originated in English.
The earliest known version appears in print in 1659, by Welsh-English historian James Howell, who included it as "No weeping for shed milk" in his collection of proverbs. This shows it was already an established English saying by the mid-17th century and
likely existed in oral tradition even earlier.
Literary Influence: Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the saying appeared in English books, essays, and collections of proverbs, including in works by famous writers like Jonathan Swift. As English-language literature became more widely
read across Europe, many proverbial sayings were translated and adopted into other European languages.
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proverb “It’s no use crying over spilt milk”—meaning: don’t waste time worrying about things that have already happened and can’t be changed—is rendered or paraphrased in several languages:
Danish ----- Det nytter ikke at græde over spildt mælk.
French
Ce qui est fait est fait. (What’s done is done.)
Il ne sert à rien de pleurer sur le lait renversé.
More idiomatic:
On ne revient pas en arrière. ("You can’t turn back.")
German
Es nützt nichts, über verschüttete Milch zu weinen.
Other idioms: Was geschehen ist, ist geschehen. (“What's done is done.”)
Spanish
No vale la pena llorar sobre la leche derramada.
More idiomatic: A lo hecho, pecho.
(Literally: “To what is done, [put your] chest”—meaning face what’s done with courage.)
Japanese
覆水盆に返らず (fukusui bon ni kaerazu)
Italian
Non serve a niente piangere sul latte versato.
Russian
Что упало, то пропало.
(What has fallen is lost. — Idiomatic equivalent.)
Or: Поздно пить боржоми, когда почки отказали.
(“It’s too late to drink Borjomi when the kidneys have failed.”)
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