No fish today. . .

[rolanni]

...on the other hand, I found out that two huge tasks at the day-job have shifted -- one out of my office entirely, and the other out by a year -- moving me from "Ohmighod, how am I going to survive the spring semester, much less finish writing a novel?" to "Hey! I can do this!"

The Gods of Chaos Giveth; the Gods of Chaos Taketh Away. Blessed be the name of Chaos.

...at least, in this instance.

At home, finished shifting the 2009 files out of the drawer and into the file box, made 2010 files, finished the 2009 filing. I'm counting this as a Job Well Done and am retiring to the sofa to finish reading the book I've been slugging around with me for dern near a month.

Appropos of Nothing Much, I lately somewhere came across this quote:

These things cannot be retrieved:
The arrow sped from the bow,
The word spoken in haste,
The missed opportunity.

...which is all right, except I remember learning it this way:

For four things there is no recall: The spoken word, the arrow sped from the bow, the march of fate, and time that is past.

Anybody have another variation?

Comments

[drammar.livejournal.com]

From my grandmother:

"Girl there are three things you never get to do over: the day when sundown comes, the words you've already spoken, and the arrow once you let it go. Oh, make that four -- the milk once it's spilt."

[(Anonymous)]

I recall that as "a promise given, an arrow released, a milk bucket overturned and an opportunity lost ...".

Brom

[keristor.livejournal.com]

A similar traditional Welsh one (translated) is:

Three things are not easily restrained:
the flow of a torrent,
the flight of an arrow,
and the tongue of a fool.

This form is a classic Triad in Celtic literature (Welsh and Irish in particular). Some of them became double-triads, when they realised that there were more than three similar things. They were used for proverbs and aphorisms, and were probably originally passed verbally (certainly some of them were used in songs). Some became double triads, with the first line of the second worded slightly differently ("cannot be retrieved" / "there is no recall" for example).

I haven't heard that the four item[1] versions ever got a specific name, or were as formalised, there seem to be lot more variations.

[1] It is generally accepted that a set of five or more items tend to be forgotten, three is the classic number and grouping things in threes often gets applause (think of Churchill's "blood, sweat and tears" and other famous speeches).

[pedanther]

Maybe this is why you mentioned it, but that line of Churchill's is actually a really good example of the phenomenon, because when Churchill said it, it was four things, but people tend to only remember three. (The fourth was "toil".)

In a more modern version?

[jane-barfly.livejournal.com]

I've had the Unfortunate Duty of telling former bosses that e-mails once sent cannot be unsent. Yes, these are a subset of "word once spoken," but my goodness, is it ever a newsworthy subset.

"The arrow and the e-mail sped on their way" jsut doesn't have the same ring, though. "I shot an e-mail in the air?" Hmmmnnnn.
Laura

Re: In a more modern version?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

How about something like...

You can't stop or undo
-- a bullet that's fired
-- email that's sent
-- a file that's deleted
-- time that has past.

Something like that. Yeah, the electronic versions ... I had someone get furious with me because I couldn't retrieve a file that he had (a) deleted (b) emptied the little trashcan (all after writing it and before the daily backup). He insisted that I should be able to do it. Not considering that he had at least twice been asked "Are you sure you want to delete this?"

quote

[leokatz.livejournal.com]

incidentally. i came across a German version of your quote in my parish newsletter in Berlin , Germany the other day. It runs:

Vier Dinge kommen nicht zurück:
Das gesprochene Wort,
der abgeschossene Pfeil,
das vergangene Leben
und die versäumte Gelegenheit.

Four things do not come back:

The spoken word,
the loosened arrow,
life gone by,
and a missed opportunity.

So, obviously, the collective subconscious exists or might this be a case for cultural genetics ? ;-)

All the best from cold and snowy Berlin
leokatz