Ɔsɛnkafo 1
1 Eyinom ne nsɛm a Ɔsɛnkafo, ɔhene Dawid babarima a ɔyɛ ɔhene wɔ Yerusalem se:
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 “Ahuhude! Ahuhude!” Ɔsɛnkafo no na ose. “Ahuhude mu ahuhude Biribiara yɛ ahuhude.”
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Dɛn na onipa nya fi nʼadwumayɛ nyinaa mu, nea okum ne ho yɛ no owia so no?
(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 Awo ntoatoaso ba na ɛkɔ, nanso asase tim hɔ daa.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Owia pue na owia kɔtɔ, na ɛyɛ ntɛm kɔ nea epue fii hɔ no.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Mframa bɔ kɔ anafo fam na ɛdan hwɛ atifi fam; ekyinkyin kɔ baabiara, na ɛsan bɔ fa ne kwan so.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Nsubɔnten nyinaa sen kogu po mu, nanso po nyɛ ma da. Faako a nsubɔnten no fi no hɔ na wɔsan kɔ bio.
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 Biribiara yɛ ɔbrɛ a ɛboro nea obi bɛka so. Ani nhwɛ ade nwie da na aso nso ntie nsɛm mma ɛnyɛ mma da.
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 Nea aba no bɛba bio, nea wɔayɛ no, wɔbɛyɛ bio; ade foforo biara nni owia yi ase.
[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 Biribi wɔ hɔ a wobetumi aka wɔ ho se: “Hwɛ! eyi yɛ ade foforo” ana? Ɛwɔ hɔ dedaw fi tete nteredee; ɛwɔ hɔ ansa na wɔwoo yɛn.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Wɔnkae tetefo no, na wɔn a wonnya nnwoo wɔn no nso, wɔn a wobedi wɔn akyi no renkae wɔn.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Me, Ɔsɛnkafo, na meyɛ Israelhene wɔ Yerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Mituu me ho sii hɔ sɛ mede nimdeɛ besua ayɛ nhwehwɛmu wɔ biribiara a wɔyɛ no owia yi ase ho. Adesoa duruduru a Onyankopɔn de ato adesamma so!
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 Mahu biribiara a wɔyɛ no owia yi ase; ne nyinaa nka hwee, ɛte sɛnea obi tu mmirika taa mframa.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Nea akyea no wontumi nteɛ; na nea enni hɔ no wontumi nkan.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Mekaa wɔ me tirim se, “Hwɛ, manyin na manya nimdeɛ bebree asen obiara a watena Yerusalem ahengua so ansa na merebedi ade. Manya nhumu ne nimdeɛ mu osuahu.”
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 Afei meyɛɛ mʼadwene sɛ mɛhwehwɛ na mate nimdeɛ, ne adammɔsɛm ne nkwaseasɛm ase. Nanso mihuu sɛ eyi nso te sɛnea obi tu mmirika taa mframa.
[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 Nimdeɛ bebree de awerɛhow na ɛba; nyansa dɔɔso a, awerɛhowdi dɔɔso.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
