< उपदेशक 1 >
1 यी वचनहरू एक जना उपदेशकका हुन् जो दाऊदका छोरा र यरूशलेमका राजा थिए ।
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 उपदेशक यसो भन्छन्, “तुवाँलोको बाफ र बतासमा भएको मन्द हावाजस्तै हरेक कुरा व्यर्थ छ, जसले धेरै प्रश्न उब्जाउँछ ।
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 मानिसले सूर्यमूनि कठिन परिश्रम गर्दा सारा कामबाट उसले के लाभ पाउँछ र?
(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 एउटा पुस्ता जान्छ, र अर्को पुस्ता आउँछ, तर पृथ्वीचाहिँ सदासर्वदा रहिरहन्छ ।
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 सूर्य उदाउँछ, र अस्ताउँछ, अनि आफू उदाएको ठाउँमा चाँडै फर्केर जान्छ ।
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 बतास दक्षिणतिर बहन्छ, र अनि सधैँ उत्तरतिर चक्कर मार्छ । त्यो सधैँ आफ्नो मार्गमा जाने र फर्कने गर्छ ।
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 सबै नदी समुद्रमा बगेर जान्छन्, तर समुद्र कहिल्यै भरिँदैन । जहाँ नदीहरू बहन्छन्, तिनीहरू फेरि त्यहीँ जान्छन् ।
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 हरेक कुरो विरक्तलाग्दो छ, र कसैले यसको वर्णन गर्न सक्दैन । आँखाले जे देख्छ, त्यसबाट यो सन्तुष्ट हुँदैन, न त कानले जे सुन्छ, त्यसबाट यो सन्तुष्ट हुन्छ ।
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 जे भएको छ, त्यो हुने छ, र जे गरिएको छ, त्यो गरिने छ । सूर्यमूनि केही पनि नयाँ छैन ।
[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 के यस्तो कुनै कुरो छ जसको विषयमा 'हेर्, यो त नयाँ छ' भन्न सकिन्छ? जे अस्तित्वमा छ, त्यो लामो समयदेखि अस्तित्वमा रहिआएको छ, हामीभन्दा धेरै पहिले देखि रहँदै आएको छ ।
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 प्राचीन कालमा भएका कुराहरू कसैले सम्झन्छजस्तो छैन; धेरै पछि भएका कुराहरू र भविष्यमा हुने कुराहरू पनि कसैले सम्झने छजस्तो छैन ।”
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 म उपदेशक हुँ, र मैले यरूशलेममा राजा भएर शासन गरेको छु ।
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 आकाशमूनि गरिने हरेक कुरोलाई बुद्धिद्वारा अध्ययन गर्न र अनुसन्धान गर्न मैले मेरो मन लगाएँ । त्यो अनुसन्धान एउटा कष्टकर काम हो जुन परमेश्वरले मानिसहरूलाई व्यस्त राख्न दिनुभएको हो ।
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 मैले सूर्यमूनि गरिने सबै काम देखेको छु, र ती सबै व्यर्थ छन् र बतासलाई खेदेजस्तो हो
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 बाङ्गोलाई सोझो बनाउन सकिँदैन । हराएकोलाई गन्न सकिँदैन ।
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 मैले मेरो मनलाई यसो भनेको छु, “हेर्, यरूशलेममा मभन्दा अगि भएका सबैले भन्दा मैले धेरै बुद्धि प्राप्त गरेको छु । मेरो मनले धेरै बुद्धि र ज्ञान देखेको छ ।”
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 त्यसैले बुद्धि, पागलपन र मूर्खता जान्न मेरो मन लगाएँ । यो पनि बतासको रेखदेख गर्ने कोसिस रहेछ भनी मैले बुझेँ ।
[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 किनकि बुद्धिको प्रशस्ततामा धेरै निराशा हुन्छ, र ज्ञान बढाउनेले पिर बढाउँछ ।
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.