On my first trip to the former Soviet Union in 1964, I heard the Russian proverb, "A word is not a sparrow. Having flown out, you cannot catch it."
Some years later in Japan, someone remarked to me, Haita tsuba wa nomenai (You can't swallow saliva you've already spit out.) While not quite as pretty as the Russian expression, the Japanese one carries the same meaning: Once you have said something, it's too late to retract it.
I realized then that, given slight differences in wording, languages often had similar sayings and saws and that these can be full of color and wisdom. English and Japanese are troves of wise sayings, and the logic, if not the metaphors, in them may be strikingly alike.