Eagles Over the Kennebec

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