Mpitoriteny 1
1 Ty taro’ i Mpañokey, ana’ i Davide, mpanjaka e Ierosalaime ao.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Hakafoahan-kafoake, hoe i Mpañokey, Hakafoahan-kafoake! Fonga kafoake!
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Ino ty tombo’e ho a ondatio amo fifanehafa’e ambane’ i àndroy?
(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 Mihelañe ty tariratse raike, mbore limbezen-tariratse, fe nainai’e eo ty tane toy.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Manjirike ka i àndroy, mitsofotse i àndroy, mihiririñe mb’am-panjiriha’e añe.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Mitioke mañatimo, le mibalike mañavaratse; mikariokariok’ avao i tiokey, vaho mimpoly amo fiaria’eo.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Songa mivariñe mb’an-driake mb’eo o sakao fe tsy atseke i riakey; mb’amy fikararaha’ o torahañeoy, le mb’eo avao ty fikararaha’ iareo.
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 Hene mahamamake, tsy lefe’ ondaty volañeñe, tsy mahaetsa-pihaino t’ie vazoho, mbore tsy mahaenen-dravembia te ijanjiñañe.
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 Mbe ho avy indraike i fa añey, naho mbe hanoeñe avao ze fa nanoeñe, vaho tsy ambane’ i àndroy ty atao vao.
[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 Eo hao ty mete hanoeñe ty hoe, Heheke! vao itoy? Ie fa teo avao, haehae taolon-tikañe añe.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Tsy tiahy o raha taoloo, naho o raha hifetsakeo, vaho tsy hahatiahy irezay o hanonjohio.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Zaho, i mpañokey, le fa mpanjaka Israele e Ierosalaime ao,
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 le nimanean-troko ty hañotsohotso naho hikodebe an-kihitse ze hene fitoloñañe ambanen-dikerañe atoa; toe tolon-draha mahamokotse ty natolon’ Añahare am’ondatio hifanehafa’e.
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 Nitreako iaby ze fitoloñañe ambane’ i àndroy; le hehe t’ie fonga kafoake vaho fañeañan-tioke.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Tsy mete ahity ty mengoke, vaho tsy lefe iaheñe ty tsy eo.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Hoe raho am-batako: Ingo fa natontoko mandikoatse ze hene mpifehe’ Ierosalaime taolo ahy ty fahaoniñañe ra’elahy; vaho nandifotse ty troko ty hihitse naho hilala.
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 Le nampitoloñeko ty troko hahaoniña’e hihitse naho hahafohiñe ty hadagolà naho ty hagegeañe. Nirendreko t’ie fañeañan-tioke ka.
[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 Amy te minday hasosoram-bey ty hihitse maro, vaho mampitombo haoreañe ty fitomboan-kilala.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
