Kaikauwhau 1
1 Ko nga kupu a te Kaikauwhau, ara a te tama a Rawiri, i kingi nei ki Hiruharama.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 He tino horihori rawa, e ai ta te Kaikauwhau, he tino horihori rawa; he horihori katoa.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 He aha te pai ki te tangata o tona mauiui katoa e mauiui ai ia i raro i te ra?
(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 Ko tenei whakatupuranga e haere atu ana, ko tera whakatupuranga e haere mai ana: ko te whenua ia, mau tonu.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 E whiti ana hoki te ra, e heke atu ana te ra, hohoro tonu atu ki tona wahi whiti mai ai.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 E anga ana te hau ki te tonga, na ka taka ki te raki; he hanga takataka tonu tana i tona ara, a ka hoki mai ano te hau ki ona takatakanga.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 E rere ana nga awa katoa ki te moana, heoi kahore e ki te moana: ko te wahi i rere mai ai nga awa, ka hoki atu ano ratou ki reira.
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 Mauiui rawa nga mea katoa, e kore e taea e te tangata te korero: e kore te kanohi e ngata i te matakaitaki, e kore te taringa e ki i te whakarongo.
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 Ko to mua mea koia ano hei mea aianei; a ko te mea i mahia i mua ka mahia ano aianei; kahore hoki he mea hou i raro i te ra.
[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 Tera ano ranei he mea e ki ai tetahi, Titiro, he mea hou tenei? He mea ia no nga wa o mua, no era i mua atu i a tatou.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Kahore he mahara ki nga whakatupuranga o mua; kahore hoki e maharatia nga whakatupuranga e haere mai a muri nei e te hunga o muri atu.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Ko ahau, ko te Kaikauwhau, te kingi o Iharaira i Hiruharama.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Na ka whakaangahia e ahau toku ngakau ki te whakaaro nui hei rapu, hei kimi i nga mea katoa e mahia ana i raro i te rangi: na te Atua tenei whakararuraru kino i homai ki nga tama a te tangata hei whakararu i a ratou.
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 Kua kite ahau i nga mea katoa e mahia ana i raro i te ra. Nana, he horihori katoa, he whai hoki i te hau.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Ko te mea piko e kore e taea te whakahangai: ko te mea koha e kore e taea te tatau.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 I korerorero ahau ki toku ngakau, i mea, Nana, kua whiwhi rawa ahau i te whakaaro nui ki runga ake i o te hunga katoa i mua atu i ahau i Hiruharama: ae ra, he maha nga mea kua kitea e toku ngakau o te whakaaro nui, o te matauranga.
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 Na ka whakaangahia e ahau toku ngakau kia mohio ki te whakaaro nui, kia mohio ki te haurangi, ki te wairangi: a kua kite ahau he whai ano hoki tenei i te hau.
[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 Ma te nui hoki o te whakaaro ka nui ai te pouri: a ko te tangata e whakaneke ake ana i te matauranga e whakaneke ake ana i te mamae.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
