< Ecclesiastes 1 >

1 [I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
Pawòl predikatè a, fis a David la, Wa Jérusalem.
2 I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
“Vanite sou vanite”, predikatè la di: “Vanite sou vanite! Tout se vanite.”
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]
Ki avantaj yon nonm gen nan tout travay ke li fè anba solèy la?
4 [Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
Yon jenerasyon ale e yon jenerasyon vini; men tè a rete pou tout tan.
5 [Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
Anplis, solèy la leve e solèy la kouche; konsa li kouri al jwenn plas li pou li leve la ankò.
6 The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
Van an soufle vè sid, vire kote nò e kontinye vire fè wonn li. Sou menm kous vire won an, li retounen ankò.
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.
Tout rivyè yo desann vè lanmè a; sepandan li pa vin plen. Nan plas kote rivyè yo koule a, se la yo koule ankò.
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.
Tout bagay sa yo fatigan; lòm pa kapab menm eksplike sa. Zye pa satisfè ak wè, ni zòrèy ak tande.
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].
Sa ki te ye, se sa ki va ye e sa ki te konn fèt, se sa k ap fèt. Konsa, nanpwen anyen ki nèf anba syèl la.
10 Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
Èske gen yon bagay sou sila a nou ta kab di: “Men sa a nèf”? Deja, li te la depi syèk ki te ekoule avan nou yo.
11 [People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
Nanpwen memwa a ansyen bagay yo, ni anplis a sila k ap vini pita, pami sila ki vini apre yo.
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
Mwen menm, predikatè a, te sèvi kon wa sou Israël nan Jérusalem.
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.
Mwen te konsantre tout refleksyon mwen pou chache e egzamine sou sajès tout sa ki te konn fèt anba syèl la. Sa se yon gwo tach lou ke Bondye te bay fis a lòm yo pou l ta aflije yo.
14 It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
Mwen te wè tout zèv ki te fèt anba solèy la e, men vwala, tout se vanite e chache kouri dèyè van.
15 [Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
Sa ki kwochi p ap ka drese e sa ki manke p ap ka konte.
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!”
Mwen te di a pwòp tèt mwen: “Men gade, mwen te fè sajès vin grandi e ogmante plis pase tout lòt wa ki te sou Jérusalem avan mwen yo. Wi, panse mwen te obsève anpil richès ak sajès avèk konesans.”
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.
Mwen te dirije panse mwen pou konnen sajès e pou konnen sa ki ensanse ak sa ki foli nèt. Konsa, mwen te vin wè ke sa osi se chache kouri dèyè van.
18 The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
Paske nan anpil sajès gen anpil tristès, e nan anpil konesans gen anpil doulè.

< Ecclesiastes 1 >