Patukkung 1
1 Jerusalem ih siangpahrang, David capa, Patukkung ih loknawk loe hae tiah oh.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Azom pui ni! Azom pui ni! tiah Patukkung mah thuih; azom pui ni! Hmuen boih hae azom pui ah ni oh.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Kami mah ni tlim ah angpho qawt hoi toksakhaih atho timaw oh?
(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 Adung maeto laemh naah, adung kalah maeto angzoh; toe long loe dungzan khoek to cak poe.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Ni doeh tacawt tahang moe, akun tathuk, angmah tacawthaih ahmuen hoiah ni tacawt let.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Takhi loe aloih bangah song tathuk moe, aluek bangah amlaem tahang; ahnuk ahma amhae moe, a songhaih ahmuen ah amlaem let.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Vapuinawk boih loe tuipui ah long o tathuk; toe tuipui loe koi ai toengtoeng vop, vapuinawk loe angmacae long tangsuekhaih ahmuen ah amlaem o let.
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 Hmuen boih loe kami mah thui thaih han ai khoek to, angpho haih koiah ni oh o; mik mah a hnukhaih to boep thai ai, naa doeh a thaihaih hoiah koi thai ai.
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 Kaom han koi hmuen loe, kaom tangcae hmuen baktiah ni om tih; sak han kaom hmuen doeh, sak tangcae hmuen baktih ni sah let tih; ni tlim ah hmuen kangtha tidoeh om ai.
[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 Khenah, Hae loe hmuen kangtha ah oh, tiah thuih han koi hmuen oh maw? To baktih hmuen loe canghnii hoiah ni oh boeh.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Canghnii ih hmuennawk to mi mah doeh panoek ai boeh; angzo han koi kaminawk mah doeh, angzo han koi hmuennawk to panoek o mak ai.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Kai, Patukkung loe Jerusalem Israel siangpahrang ah ka oh.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Ni tlim ah sak ih hmuennawk boih to palunghahaih hoiah ka pakrong moe, panoek thai hanah tha ka pathok; Sithaw mah to hmuenzit to kaminawk hanah pahoe pae boeh.
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 Ni tlim ah sak ih hmuennawk to ka hnuk boih; khenah, hmuen boih loe azom pui ni, poek angpho han ih ni oh o.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Angkawn pacoeng boeh loe patoengh thai ai boeh; angaihaih doeh kroek thai ai boeh.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Khenah, kai loe, ka om ai nathuem ih Israel ukkungnawk pongah, ka len kue moe, palunghahaih bangah doeh ka sang kue; ue, palunghahaih hoi panoekhaih to pop kue ah ka tawnh, tiah ka poek.
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 Palunghahaih bang, amthuhaih bang hoi poek cai ai ah ohhaih bangah doeh, ka panoek thai hanah palungthin to ka paek; hae hmuen doeh takhi hnuk patom baktiah ni oh toengtoeng.
[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 Palunghahaih pop baktiah, palungsethaih doeh pop; panoekhaih pop kami loe, palungsethaih doeh pop aep.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
