From a line of dialogue spoken by the character Lady Macbeth in Act III Scene II of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.
what's done is done
- Events that have already taken place cannot be changed and actions that have already been committed cannot be undone, so it is best not to dwell on them.
2026 March 1, David French, “War and Peace Cannot Be Left to One Man — Especially Not This Man”, in The New York Times[1], →ISSN, archived from the original on 1 March 2026:As I mentioned in a round-table conversation with my colleagues on Saturday, I’m worried that all too many people will say: Well, in a perfect world Trump should have gone to Congress, but what’s done is done. That is exactly the wrong way to approach this war.
- Albanian: çu bë u bë
- Arabic: مَا حَدَثَ قَد حَدَثَ (mā ḥadaṯa qad ḥadaṯa), مَا فَاتَ قَدْ مَاتْ (mā fāta qad māt)
- Azerbaijani: olan olub, olan olub, torba dolub
- Cebuano: dili na mabalik ang baha paingon sa bukid (literally “you cannot bring back the flood into the mountains”)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 覆水難收 / 覆水难收 (zh) (fùshuǐnánshōu)
- Dutch: gedane zaken nemen geen keer
- Finnish: tehty mikä tehty
- French: ce qui est fait est fait (fr), le mal est fait (fr)
- German: was passiert ist, ist passiert
- Hindi: जो होगया सों होगया (jo hogyā sõ hogyā)
- Hungarian: ez a hajó már elment
- Irish: déantar an méid atá déanta
- Japanese: 覆水盆に返らず (ja) (fukusui bon ni kaerazu)
- Korean: 한번 엎지른 물은 다시 주워 담지 못한다 (ko) (hanbeon eopjireun mur-eun dasi juwo damji mothanda)
- Māori: e hoki oti te hūare ki te waha
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: gjort er gjort
- Persian: کاری است که شده (kâri ast ke šode)
- Polish: co się stało, to się nie odstanie (pl), co było, to było
- Portuguese: o que está feito está feito
- Romanian: ce-a fost, a fost
- Russian: что сде́лано, то сде́лано (što sdélano, to sdélano)
- Scottish Gaelic: tha na tha air a dhèanamh air a dhèanamh
- Spanish: lo hecho, hecho está, ajo y agua (es)
- Swedish: gjort och klar
- Tagalog: nasa huli ang pagsisisi (literally “regret comes last”)
- Turkish: olan oldu (tr)
- Welsh: mae'r hyn sy'n cael ei wneud yn cael ei wneud
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