Ecclesiastes 11
1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.
Mitte panem tuum super transeuntes aquas: quia post tempora multa invenies illum.
2 Divide your portion among seven, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may befall the land.
Da partem septem, necnon et octo: quia ignoras quid futurum sit mali super terram.
3 If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain upon the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
Si repletæ fuerint nubes, imbrem super terram effundent. Si ceciderit lignum ad Austrum, aut ad Aquilonem, in quocumque loco ceciderit, ibi erit.
4 He who watches the wind will fail to sow, and he who observes the clouds will fail to reap.
Qui observat ventum, non seminat: et qui considerat nubes, numquam metet.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
Quomodo ignoras quæ sit via spiritus, et qua ratione compingantur ossa in ventre prægnantis; sic nescis opera Dei, qui Fabricator est omnium.
6 Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.
Mane semina semen tuum, et vespere ne cesset manus tua: quia nescis quid magis oriatur, hoc aut illud: et si utrumque simul, melius erit.
7 Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
Dulce lumen, et delectabile est oculis videre solem.
8 So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.
Si annis multis vixerit homo, et in his omnibus lætatus fuerit, meminisse debet tenebrosi temporis, et dierum multorum: qui cum venerint, vanitatis arguentur præterita.
9 Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.
Lætare ergo iuvenis in adolescentia tua, et in bono sit cor tuum in diebus iuventutis tuæ, et ambula in viis cordis tui, et in intuitu oculorum tuorum: et scito quod pro omnibus his adducet te Deus in iudicium.
10 So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.
Aufer iram a corde tuo, et amove malitiam a carne tua. Adolescentia enim et voluptas vana sunt.
