Ecclesiastes 1
1 Pa inge kas lun sie Mwet Luti Lalmwetmet, wen natul David, su tuh tokosra in Jerusalem.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Mwet Luti Lalmwetmet el fahk lah ma nukewa ma lusrongten na lusrongten! Moul uh wangin sripama na lusrongten se.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Kom orekma ac kemkatu in moul lom nufon, na mea oasr ma kom konauk kac?
(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 Sie fwil uh somla ac sie fwil sifil tuku, a faclu nuna ouiya ah na.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Faht ah srakna tak ac srakna tili, na sa na in folok nu ke acn se ma el ac sifil takak we.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Eng uh tuh eir me ac som nu epang, ac sifil tuk — raun na raun.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Infacl nukewa sororla nu meoa, a meoa soenna sessesla. Kof uh folok nu yen infacl uh mutawauk we, ac sifilpa sororma.
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 Saflaiyen ma nukewa pa totola — sie totola na yohk su wangin kas fal in aketeya. Mutasr tia muti ke ma kut liye, ac insresr tia muti ke ma kut lohng.
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 Ma sikyak meet ac sifilpa sikyak. Ma orekla tari ac sifilpa orek. Wangin ma sasu in faclu nufon.
[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 Mwet uh fahk, “Liye, ma sasu se pa inge!” Tusruktu sutuu, sikyak tari meet, oemeet liki na kut isusla ah.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Wangin mwet esam ma tuh sikyak in pacl meet ah, ac in pacl fahsru wangin mwet fah esam ma sikyak in len ingela.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Nga, Mwet Luti Lalmwetmet, su tuh muta Jerusalem ac tokosra fin acn Israel nufon.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Nga nunkala ku sik mu nga ac tuni ac lutlut ke ma nukewa ma mwet uh oru fin faclu. God El ase orekma na toasr nu sesr mwet uh in oru.
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 Nga liye tari ma nukewa ma orek faclu, ac nga fahk nu sum, nufonna wangin sripaoana ukweyen eng uh.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Kom tia ku in aksuwosyela ma kihla; kom tia pac ku in oek ma wangin uh.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Nga fahk nu sik sifacna, “Nga sie mwet na fulat, ac nga arulana lalmwetmet liki kutena mwet su leumi Jerusalem meet likiyu. Nga etu na pwaye lah mea lalmwetmet ac etauk.”
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 Nga tuh sulela ku sik in etu ke kalmen etauk ac kalmen lalfon, oayapa ke lalmwetmet ac wel. Tusruktu nga konauk lah ma inge oana ukweyen eng uh.
[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 Lalmwetmet lom fin yokelik, na fosrnga lom ac yokelik pac. Fin yokelik etauk lom, ac yokelik pulakinyen keok sum.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
