Thuituen 1
1 Jerusalem manghai David capa kah thuituenkung ol.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 A honghi, a honghi ni. Thuituenkung loh, “A honghi, a honghi, a honghi boeih ni,” a ti.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Khohmik hmuiah a thakthae bangla a thakthaenah cungkuem lamloh hlang taengah balae a rhoeikhangnah.
(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 Thawnpuei loh cet tih cadil thoeng coeng dae diklai he kumhal duela a pai moenih.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Khomik loh thoeng tih khomik he kun bal. Te phoeiah amah hmuen te a hloem pahoi tiih thoeng.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Tuithim la cet tih tlangpuei la aka mael khohli he a tinghil, a tinghil doela cet. Te phoeiah khohli he a hlaep la mael.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Soklong boeih khaw tuitunli la pawk. Tedae tuitunli tah hah tlaih pawh. Soklong rhoek khaw a long nah hmuen la mael tih cet.
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 Olka boeih he bonghnaek. Hlang loh a thui hamla a noeng moenih. Mik loh a hmuh te hah pawt tih hna a yaak te cung pawh.
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 Mebang khaw aka om tangtae bangla om bal vetih, mebang khaw a saii tangtae bangla a saii bal ni. Te dongah kah khomik hmuikah he a thai boeih moenih.
[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 “A thai he hmu lah, he tah khosuen lamloh om oepsoeh coeng tih mamih hlan lamloh om,’ a ti te ol om nim?
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Lamhma kah neh hmailong kah khaw poekkoepnah om pawh. Aka om ham te khaw hmailong kah aka om taengah poekkoepnah om mahpawh.
[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 tah thuituenkung neh Jerusalem kah Israel soah manghai la ka om.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Vaan hmui kah a saii boeih te cueihnah neh dawtlet ham khaw, yaam ham khaw ka lungbuei ka paek. Hlang capa rhoek te amah phaep uh saeh tila Pathen loh yoethae bibi a khueh pah.
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 Khomik hmui kah a saii bitat boeih te ka hmuh. Te dongah a cungkuem he a honghi neh khohli doinah ni ne.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Aka khun he dueng hamla coeng pawt tih vitvawtnah khaw tae hamla coeng pawh.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Kamah tah ka lungbuei ah ka cal tih, “Ka pantai tih Jerusalem ah khaw ka mikhmuh kah aka om boeih lakah cueihnah ka thap, ka lungbuei long khaw cueihnah neh mingnah muep a hmuh la he,” ka ti.
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 Ka lungbuei he cueihnah ming ham neh anglatnah ming ham ka paek. Te dongah lunghmangnah he khaw khohli dongkah kohnek ni tila ka ming.
[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 Cueihnah a cungkuem nen khaw konoinah cungkuem tih, mingnah a koei khaw nganboh ni a koei.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
