Kekahuna 1
1 O NA olelo a ke kahuna, a ke keiki a Davida, oia ke alii ma Ierusalema.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Lapuwale o na lapuwale, wahi a ke kahuna; lapuwale o na lapuwale, pau loa na mea i ka lapuwale.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Heaha ka uku i ke kanaka i ka hana a pau ana i hana'i malalo iho o ka la?
(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 Hele aku la kekahi hanauna, a hele mai la kekahi hanauna; aka, ua mau no ka honua.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Puka mai ka la, a napoo ka la, a wikiwiki aku la ia ma kona wahi i puka mai ai.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Puhi aku la ka makani i ke kukulu hema, a huli mai la ia i ke kukulu akau; huli ae la ia io, a io; a hoi hou ka makani i kona wahi i puhi ai.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Kahe aku la na muliwai a pau i ke kai, aole nae i piha ke kai; i kahi a lakou i kahe mai ai, malaila lakou e hoi hou aku ai.
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 He mea luhi na olelo a pau, aole hiki i ke kanaka ke hai aku; aole i ana ka maka i ka ike ana, aole hoi i piha ka pepeiao i ka lohe ana.
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 O na mea mamua, oia na mea e hiki mai ana; a o na mea i hanaia, oia na mea e hanaia mahope aku nei: aohe mea hou malalo iho o ka la.
[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 No kekahi mea e hiki anei ke olelo mai, Eia! he mea hou keia? he mea no ia i ka wa kahiko mamua loa o kakou.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Aole i hoomanaoia mai na mea kahiko; a o na mea e hiki mai ana, aole e hoomanaoia ia mau mea e ka poe mahope aku.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Owau o ke kahuna, ua noho au i alii maluna o ka Iseraela ma Ierusalema.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Ua haawi au i ko'u naau e imi, a e huli me ka noeau i na mea a pau i hanaia malalo iho o ka lani. He mea kaumaba loa keia a ke Akua i haawi mai ai i na keiki a kanaka e hana'i.
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 Ua ike au i na mea a pau i hanaia malalo iho o ka lani, aia hoi, he mau mea lapuwale ia a pau a me ka luhi hewa.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 O na mea kekee, aole ia e hoopololeiia; a o ka mea nele, aole hiki ke helu aku.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Ua kukakuka au me ko'u naau iho, a i iho la, Ka! ua hookiekieia'ku au, a ua hoonui au i ka naauao mamua o na mea a pau ma Ierusalema; a ua hoomaopopo aku ko'u naau i ka noeau, a me ka ike.
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 A haawi au i ko'u naau e ike i ka naauao, a e ike no hoi i ka uhauha, a me ka lapuwale; a ike iho la au, he mea luhi hewa ia.
[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 No ka mea, ma ka naauao nui, malaila ke kaumaha; a o ka mea i hoonui i ka ike, hoonui no ia i ka eha.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
