Ecclesiastes 1
1 verba Ecclesiastes filii David regis Hierusalem
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 vanitas vanitatum dixit Ecclesiastes vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 quid habet amplius homo de universo labore suo quod laborat sub sole
(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 generatio praeterit et generatio advenit terra vero in aeternum stat
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 oritur sol et occidit et ad locum suum revertitur ibique renascens
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 gyrat per meridiem et flectitur ad aquilonem lustrans universa circuitu pergit spiritus et in circulos suos regreditur
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 omnia flumina intrant mare et mare non redundat ad locum unde exeunt flumina revertuntur ut iterum fluant
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 cunctae res difficiles non potest eas homo explicare sermone non saturatur oculus visu nec auris impletur auditu
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 quid est quod fuit ipsum quod futurum est quid est quod factum est ipsum quod fiendum est
[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 nihil sub sole novum nec valet quisquam dicere ecce hoc recens est iam enim praecessit in saeculis quae fuerunt ante nos
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 non est priorum memoria sed nec eorum quidem quae postea futura sunt erit recordatio apud eos qui futuri sunt in novissimo
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 ego Ecclesiastes fui rex Israhel in Hierusalem
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 et proposui in animo meo quaerere et investigare sapienter de omnibus quae fiunt sub sole hanc occupationem pessimam dedit Deus filiis hominum ut occuparentur in ea
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 vidi quae fiunt cuncta sub sole et ecce universa vanitas et adflictio spiritus
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 perversi difficile corriguntur et stultorum infinitus est numerus
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 locutus sum in corde meo dicens ecce magnus effectus sum et praecessi sapientia omnes qui fuerunt ante me in Hierusalem et mens mea contemplata est multa sapienter et didicit
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 dedique cor meum ut scirem prudentiam atque doctrinam erroresque et stultitiam et agnovi quod in his quoque esset labor et adflictio spiritus
[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 eo quod in multa sapientia multa sit indignatio et qui addit scientiam addat et laborem
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
