Mlaliki 1
1 Mawu a Mlaliki, mwana wa Davide, mfumu ya ku Yerusalemu:
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 “Zopandapake! Zopandapake!” atero Mlaliki. “Zopandapake kotheratu! Zopandapake.”
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Kodi munthu amapindulanji pa ntchito zake zonse zimene amasautsidwa nazo pansi pano?
(What do people gain from all the work that they do here on the earth?/It seems that people gain no lasting benefit from all the work that they do here on the earth.) [RHQ]
4 Mibado imabwera ndipo mibado imapita, koma dziko lapansi limakhalapobe nthawi zonse.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Dzuwa limatuluka ndipo dzuwa limalowa ndipo limapita mwamsanga kumene limatulukira.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Mphepo imawombera cha kummwera ndi kukhotera cha kumpoto; imawomba mozungulirazungulira, kumangobwererabwerera komwe yachokera.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Mitsinje yonse imakathira ku nyanja, koma nyanjayo sidzaza; kumene madziwo amachokera, amabwereranso komweko.
All the streams flow into the sea, but the sea is never full. The water returns [to the sky], and [when it rains], the water returns to the rivers, and it flows again to the sea.
8 Zinthu zonse ndi zotopetsa, kutopetsa kwake ndi kosaneneka. Maso satopa ndi kuona kapena khutu kukwaniritsidwa ndi kumva.
Everything is boring, [with the result that] we do not even want to talk about it. We [SYN] see things, but we always want to see more. We [SYN] hear things, but we always want to hear more.
9 Zomwe zinalipo kale zidzakhalaponso, zomwe zinachitika kale zidzachitikanso. Ndiye kuti chatsopano palibiretu pansi pano.
[Everything continues to be the same as it has always been]; things that happen have happened previously, and they will happen again. What has been done before will be done again. There is nothing [really] new in this world [MTY].
10 Kodi chilipo chinthu chimene wina anganene kuti, “Taona! Ichi ndiye chatsopano?” Chinalipo kale, kalekale; chinalipo ife kulibe.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Anthu akale sakumbukiridwa, ngakhale amene adzabwera mʼtsogolomu sadzakumbukiridwa ndi iwo amene adzabwere pambuyo pawo.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Ine, Mlalikine, ndinali mfumu ya Israeli mu Yerusalemu.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Ndinayika mtima wanga pophunzira ndi kufunafuna mwa nzeru zinthu zonse zimene zimachitika pansi pa thambo. Ndi ntchito yolemetsa ndithu imene Mulungu anayipereka kwa anthu!
By being wise, I concentrated on understanding everything that was being done on the earth [MTY]. [But I found out that] God causes [all of] us to experience things that cause us to be unhappy/miserable.
14 Ine ndaona zinthu zonse zochitika pansi pano; zinthu zonsezo ndi zopandapake, nʼkungodzivuta chabe.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Chinthu chokhota sichingathe kuwongoledwa; chimene palibe sichingathe kuwerengedwa.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Ine ndinaganiza mu mtima mwanga, “Taona, ine ndakula ndi kukhala wa nzeru zochuluka kupambana aliyense amene analamulirapo Yerusalemu ndisanabadwe; ndaphunzira nzeru zochuluka ndi luntha.”
I said to myself, “[Hey], I am wiser than any of the kings that ruled in Jerusalem before I [became the king]. I am wiser and I know more than any of them!”
17 Ndipo ndinadzipereka kuti ndithe kumvetsa kuti nzeru nʼchiyani, misala nʼchiyani, uchitsiru nʼchiyani, koma ndinazindikira ichi, kuti kuteronso nʼkungodzivuta chabe.
[So] I determined to learn [more] about being wise and to learn about knowing about many things, and [also] to learn about [doing things that are] very foolish [DOU]. [But] I found out that trying to understand those things was also [useless, like] chasing the wind.
18 Pakuti nzeru zochuluka zimabweretsa chisoni chochulukanso: chidziwitso chochuluka, zowawa zochulukanso.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
