Ecclesiastes 1
1 [I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
在耶路撒冷作王、大卫的儿子、传道者的言语。
2 I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
传道者说：虚空的虚空， 虚空的虚空，凡事都是虚空。
3 (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]
人一切的劳碌， 就是他在日光之下的劳碌，有什么益处呢？
4 [Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
一代过去，一代又来， 地却永远长存。
5 [Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
日头出来，日头落下， 急归所出之地。
6 The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
风往南刮，又向北转， 不住地旋转，而且返回转行原道。
7 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.
江河都往海里流，海却不满； 江河从何处流，仍归还何处。
8 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.
万事令人厌烦， 人不能说尽。 眼看，看不饱； 耳听，听不足。
9 [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].
已有的事后必再有； 已行的事后必再行。 日光之下并无新事。
10 Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
岂有一件事人能指着说这是新的？ 哪知，在我们以前的世代早已有了。
11 [People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
已过的世代，无人记念； 将来的世代，后来的人也不记念。
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
我传道者在耶路撒冷作过以色列的王。
13 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.
我专心用智慧寻求、查究天下所做的一切事，乃知 神叫世人所经练的是极重的劳苦。
14 It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
我见日光之下所做的一切事，都是虚空，都是捕风。
15 [Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
弯曲的，不能变直； 缺少的，不能足数。
16 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!”
我心里议论说：我得了大智慧，胜过我以前在耶路撒冷的众人，而且我心中多经历智慧和知识的事。
17 [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.
我又专心察明智慧、狂妄，和愚昧，乃知这也是捕风。
18 The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
因为多有智慧，就多有愁烦； 加增知识的，就加增忧伤。
