Lallaba 1
1 Dubbii lallabaa ilma Daawit, isa Yerusaalem keessaatti mootii taʼe sanaa:
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Lallabichi, “Faayidaa hin qabu! Faayidaa hin qabu! Guutumaan guutuutti faayidaa hin qabu! Wanni hundinuu faayidaa hin qabu” jedha.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Namni hojii isaa kan aduudhaa gaditti itti dadhabu hunda keessaa, buʼaa maalii argata?
(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 Dhaloonni ni dhufa; dhaloonni ni darba; lafti garuu bara baraan jiraatti.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Biiftuun ni baati; biiftuun ni lixxi; gara baate sanatti deebiʼuufis ni ariifatti.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Bubbeen gara kibbaatti bubbisa; gara kaabaattis ni deebiʼa; innis naannaʼuma naannaʼee deema; karaa isaa irras deddeebiʼa.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Lagni hundi galaanatti yaaʼa; galaanni garuu hin guutu. Lageen garuma dhufanitti deebiʼanii yaaʼu.
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 Wanni hundinuu hamma namni tokko dubbachuu dandaʼu caalaa dadhabsiisaa dha. Iji argee hin quufu; yookaan gurri dhagaʼee hin guutu.
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 Wanni duraan ture ammas ni taʼa; wanni duraan hojjetame ammas ni hojjetama; aduudhaa gaditti wanni haaraan tokko iyyuu hin jiru.
[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 Wanni namni tokko, “Ilaa! Wanni kun haaraa dha” jechuu dandaʼu kam iyyuu jiraa? Wanni kun duraanuu bara dheeraan dura as ture; bara keenyaan dura iyyuu asuma ture.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Namoonni bara durii hin yaadataman; kanneen dhufuuf jiranis warra isaan duubaan dhufaniin hin yaadataman.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Ani Lallabaan, Yerusaalem keessatti mootii Israaʼelin ture.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Ani waan samii gaditti hojjetame hunda ogummaadhaan quʼadhee qoradhee bira gaʼuuf of kenneen ture. Waaqni baʼaa ulfaataa akkamii nama irra kaaʼe!
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 Ani waan aduudhaa gaditti hojjetame hunda argeera; hundi isaanii iyyuu faayidaa hin qaban; kun akkuma nama bubbee ariʼuu ti.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Wanni jalʼifame tokko deebiʼee hin qajeelfamu; wanni hin jirres lakkaaʼamuu hin dandaʼu.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Anis akkana jedheen yaade; “Kunoo, ani nama anaan dura Yerusaalemin bulchaa ture kam iyyuu caalaa guddadhee ogummaas dabaladheera; ani muuxannoo ogummaatii fi beekumsaa guddaa argadheera.”
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 Kanaafuu ani ogummaa, maraatummaa fi gowwummaa hubachuufin of kenne; garuu ani akka wanni kunis bubbee ariʼuu taʼe nan baradhe.
[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 Ogummaa guddaa keessa gadda baayʼeetu jiraatii; akkuma beekumsi dabalamuun gaddis dabalama.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
