Knowing what it means, I can translate it word-for-word in Dutch:

  van schade wordt men wijs, maar zelden rijk

It seems other European languages only include the first part in their variant:

- Door schade en schande wordt men wijs (dutch, "through harm and shame, one begets wisdom")

- Durch Schaden wird man klug (german, "through harm one gets smart")

- Dommage rend sage (french, "stupidity breeds wisdom")

- Quae nocent, saepe docent (latin, "what hurts often teaches")

The C, Unix and AWK creators know nothing on low-level stuff.

Please, kid.