< Salamans Mācītājs 1 >

1 Dāvida dēla, Jeruzālemes ķēniņa, mācības vārdi.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Niecība vien, saka tas mācītājs, niecība vien, viss ir niecība.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Kāds labums cilvēkam atlec no visa viņa grūta darba, ar ko viņš nodarbojās pasaulē.
(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 Cits dzimums aiziet un cits dzimums nāk; bet zeme pastāv mūžīgi.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Saule lec un saule noiet un steidzās uz savu vietu, kur tā atkal uzlec.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Vējš iet pret dienasvidu un iet apkārt pret ziemeļa pusi; tas pūš visapkārt griezdamies un riņķī apgriežas atpakaļ.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Visas upes ietek jūrā, tomēr jūra netop pilnāka. Tai vietā, no kurienes upes nāk, turp tās atkal atgriežas atpakaļ.
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 Visās lietās ir tik daudz grūtuma, ka neviens to nevar izteikt. Acīm nepietiek redzot, un ausīm nepietiek dzirdot.
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 Kas jau ir bijis, tas vēl būs; un kas jau ir darīts, tas vēl taps darīts; un it nekā jauna nav pasaulē.
[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 Vai ir kas, par ko varētu sacīt: redzi, tas ir jauns? Tas jau ilgi bijis vecos laikos, kas bijuši priekš mums.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Kas pagājis, netop pieminēts; un kas nāks, to arī nepieminēs tie, kas pēc tam būs.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Es, tas mācītājs, biju ķēniņš pār Israēli Jeruzālemē.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Un apņēmos savā sirdī, ar gudrību izmeklēt un izdibināt visu, kas apakš debess notiek. Šo grūto pūliņu Dievs cilvēku bērniem ir uzlicis, lai ar to nopūlējās.
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 Es uzlūkoju visus darbus, kas pasaulē notiek, un redzi, viss bija niecība un grābstīšanās pēc vēja.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Kas līks, nevar palikt taisns; un kā nav, to nevar skaitīt.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Es runāju savā sirdī un sacīju: redzi, es gudrībā esmu augsti cēlies un pieņēmies vairāk nekā visi, kas priekš manis bijuši Jeruzālemē, un mana sirds ir redzējusi gudrības un zinības papilnam.
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 Un es apņēmos savā sirdī, atzīt gudrību un zinību, neprātību un ģeķību. Bet es samanīju, ka tā ir grābstīšanās pēc vēja.
[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 Jo kur daudz gudrības, tur ir daudz grūtības, un jo vairāk atzīšanas, jo vairāk bēdu.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.

< Salamans Mācītājs 1 >