In German, the phrase literally translates to: It does me sorrow. It isn't just an admission of guilt; it’s an admission that the speaker is actually hurting because of what happened.
He looked at his boots, then at the empty space where the roses used to be. "Greta," he began, his voice raspy. " Es tut mir leid. " Es Tut Mir Leid
Klaus, the town’s clockmaker, was a man of few words and many regrets. For forty years, he had lived next to Greta, a woman whose garden was as vibrant as Klaus’s workshop was dim. They hadn’t spoken since the Great Frost of '98, when Klaus’s faulty furnace pipe had leaked, accidentally wilting Greta’s prize-winning heirloom roses. In German, the phrase literally translates to: It