Bruegel I - To fill the well after the calf has drowned

Pieter Bruegel the elder - Twelve proverbs [1558] -

Antwerp, Museum Mayer van der Berg -

Source: VisitFlanders

 

The Dutch inscription reads as follows:

Wat baet het sien en derelyck loncken,

ick stop den put als tcalf is verdroncken.

 

Free English translation:

Looking woeful and pitiful serves no purpose;

I fill in the hole when the calf has drowned.

 

The meaning is:

It is too late to fill in the well after the calf has drowned.

(measure taken only when an accident has occurred).

 

"Man soll den Brunnen nicht erst zudecken, wenn das Kind schon hineingefallen ist"

 

Done