Eklesiastes 1
1 Magi e weche mane jayalo ma wuod Daudi, mane ruodh Jerusalem owacho.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Jayalo wacho niya, “Ngima en gima nono! Chutho en gima nono! Gik moko duto onge tiendgi!”
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 En ohala mane ma dhano yudo kuom tije duto motiyo kendo mochandore godo e bwo wangʼ chiengʼ?
(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 Tiengʼ ka tiengʼ biro kendo kadho, to piny to osiko mana kaka en.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Chiengʼ wuok kendo chiengʼ podho, kendo oridore piyo piyo kodok kuma owuokie.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Yamo futo kochiko yo milambo kendo okudho kochiko yo nyandwat; odhi kolworore, ndalo duto koduogo kare mapile.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Aore duto mol kadhi ei nam, to kata kamano nam ok pongʼ. To kuma aorego oaye, kanyo ema gidwogoe.
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 Gik moko duto gin tingʼ mapek, moingo ngʼato wacho. Kata obedo ni wangʼ neno, to gik moneno ok rome, to it bende kata obedo ni owinjo gik moko, to gik mowinjo ok rome.
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 Gima osebedo biro bedo kendo, gima osetim ibiro tim kendo; kendo onge gino manyien e bwo wangʼ chiengʼ.
[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 Bende nitiere gima ngʼato nyalo wacho ni ma en gima nyien? Ooyo ok gima nyien, nimar nyalo bedo ni gino nosetimore chon kane pok onywolwa.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Joma chon ok par ngangʼ mana kaka tiengʼni bende, ok nopar gi joma biro luwo bangʼ-gi.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 An, jayalo, asebedo ruodh Israel kadak Jerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Ne achiwora mondo atiegra kendo anon matut kod rieko gigo duto mitimo e bwo polo. Mano doko tingʼ mapek ma Nyasaye oyieyo kuom ji!
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 Aseneno gik moko mitimo e bwo wangʼ chiengʼ, giduto gionge tiendgi, kendo gichalo mana yamo.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Gima odol ok nyal rie; kendo gima onge ok kwan.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Ne aparo e chunya niya, “Koro, asedongo kendo amedora e rieko moloyo ngʼato angʼata moserito Jerusalem motelona; kendo asebedo gi lony e rieko kod ngʼeyo.”
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 Eka ne achiwora ne winjo tiend rieko, ngʼeyo pogruok manie kind rieko, memruok kod fuwo, to ne afwenyo ni magi gin mana lawo bangʼ yamo mafuto.
[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 Nimar ne afwenyo ni rieko mangʼeny kelo kuyo; kendo ngʼeyo mangʼeny medo mana chuny lit.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
