Bertolt Brecht | Everything Changes

Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.
But what has happened has happened. And the water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again.

What has happened has happened. The water
You once poured into the wine cannot be
Drained off again, but
Everything changes. You can make
A fresh start with your final breath.

Bertolt Brecht wrote this in the 1940s in the USA, during his exile years from Germany. The above is the English translation by John Willett from Brecht’s collected poems.

बेर्तोल्त ब्रेख़्त | हर शै बदलती है (Asad Zaidi translation)

हर शै बदलती है। तुम नई शुरूआत
कर सकते हो आख़िरी साँस लेते हुए भी।
लेकिन जो हुआ सो हुआ। और जो पानी तुमने शराब में डाला
वापस तो निकाल नहीं सकते।

जो हुआ सो हुआ। जो पानी तुमने शराब में डाला
वापस तो निकल नहीं सकता। लेकिन
हर शै बदलती है। तुम नई शुरूआत
कर सकते हो आख़िरी साँस लेते हुए भी।
(अनुवाद : असद ज़ैदी। अंग्रेज़ी अनुवादों पर आधारित।)

Cicely Herbert explicitly acknowledges Bertolt Brecht’s original title, Alles wandelt sich:

Everything Changes | Cicely Herbert

After Brecht, Alles wandelt sich

Everything changes. We plant
trees for those born later
but what’s happened has happened,
and poisons poured into the seas
cannot be drained out again.

What’s happened has happened.
poisons poured into the seas
cannot be drained out again, but
everything changes. We plant
trees for those born later.