Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-1569), from The Twelve Proverbs (1558):
Crygel ben ick, en van sinnen stuer,
dus loop ick met den hooffde tegen den muer.
I am stubborn, my mind's intractable,
so that I run my head against the wall.
Chinese Idiom:
不撞南墙不回头
“do not turn your head until it hits the south wall”
Roger McGough, ‘Another Brick in the Wall’
‘It’s like bashing your head against a brick wall,’
said Brother Ryan,
bashing my head against a brick wall.
Notes:
Roger McGough (1937-), Collected Poems (London: Viking, 2004), p.17.
Both Dutch and Chinese proverbs relate to stubbornness. My translations.