Eklezyas 1
1 Pawòl predikatè a, fis a David la, Wa Jérusalem.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 “Vanite sou vanite”, predikatè la di: “Vanite sou vanite! Tout se vanite.”
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Ki avantaj yon nonm gen nan tout travay ke li fè anba solèy la?
(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 Yon jenerasyon ale e yon jenerasyon vini; men tè a rete pou tout tan.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Anplis, solèy la leve e solèy la kouche; konsa li kouri al jwenn plas li pou li leve la ankò.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Van an soufle vè sid, vire kote nò e kontinye vire fè wonn li. Sou menm kous vire won an, li retounen ankò.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Tout rivyè yo desann vè lanmè a; sepandan li pa vin plen. Nan plas kote rivyè yo koule a, se la yo koule ankò.
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 Tout bagay sa yo fatigan; lòm pa kapab menm eksplike sa. Zye pa satisfè ak wè, ni zòrèy ak tande.
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 Sa ki te ye, se sa ki va ye e sa ki te konn fèt, se sa k ap fèt. Konsa, nanpwen anyen ki nèf anba syèl la.
[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 Èske gen yon bagay sou sila a nou ta kab di: “Men sa a nèf”? Deja, li te la depi syèk ki te ekoule avan nou yo.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Nanpwen memwa a ansyen bagay yo, ni anplis a sila k ap vini pita, pami sila ki vini apre yo.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Mwen menm, predikatè a, te sèvi kon wa sou Israël nan Jérusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Mwen te konsantre tout refleksyon mwen pou chache e egzamine sou sajès tout sa ki te konn fèt anba syèl la. Sa se yon gwo tach lou ke Bondye te bay fis a lòm yo pou l ta aflije yo.
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 Mwen te wè tout zèv ki te fèt anba solèy la e, men vwala, tout se vanite e chache kouri dèyè van.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Sa ki kwochi p ap ka drese e sa ki manke p ap ka konte.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Mwen te di a pwòp tèt mwen: “Men gade, mwen te fè sajès vin grandi e ogmante plis pase tout lòt wa ki te sou Jérusalem avan mwen yo. Wi, panse mwen te obsève anpil richès ak sajès avèk konesans.”
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 Mwen te dirije panse mwen pou konnen sajès e pou konnen sa ki ensanse ak sa ki foli nèt. Konsa, mwen te vin wè ke sa osi se chache kouri dèyè van.
[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 Paske nan anpil sajès gen anpil tristès, e nan anpil konesans gen anpil doulè.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
