Eclesiastés 1
1 PALABRAS del Predicador, hijo de David, rey en Jerusalem.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Vanidad de vanidades, dijo el Predicador; vanidad de vanidades, todo vanidad.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 ¿Qué provecho tiene el hombre de todo su trabajo con que se afana debajo del sol?
(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 Generación va, y generación viene: mas la tierra siempre permanece.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Y sale el sol, y pónese el sol, y con deseo vuelve á su lugar donde torna á nacer.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 El viento tira hacia el mediodía, y rodea al norte; va girando de continuo, y á sus giros torna el viento de nuevo.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Los ríos todos van á la mar, y la mar no se hinche; al lugar de donde los ríos vinieron, allí tornan para correr de nuevo.
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 Todas las cosas andan en trabajo [más] que el hombre pueda decir: ni los ojos viendo se hartan de ver, ni los oídos se hinchen de oir.
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 ¿Qué es lo que fué? Lo mismo que será. ¿Qué es lo que ha sido hecho? Lo mismo que se hará: y nada hay nuevo debajo del sol.
[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 ¿Hay algo de que se pueda decir: He aquí esto es nuevo? Ya fué en los siglos que nos han precedido.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 No hay memoria de lo que precedió, ni tampoco de lo que sucederá habrá memoria en los que serán después.
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Yo el Predicador fuí rey sobre Israel en Jerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Y dí mi corazón á inquirir y buscar con sabiduría sobre todo lo que se hace debajo del cielo: este penoso trabajo dió Dios á los hijos de los hombres, en que se ocupen.
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 Yo miré todas las obras que se hacen debajo del sol; y he aquí, todo ello es vanidad y aflicción de espíritu.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Lo torcido no se puede enderezar; y lo falto no puede contarse.
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Hablé yo con mi corazón, diciendo: He aquí hállome yo engrandecido, y he crecido en sabiduría sobre todos los que fueron antes de mí en Jerusalem; y mi corazón ha percibido muchedumbre de sabiduría y ciencia.
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 Y dí mi corazón á conocer la sabiduría, y también á entender las locuras y los desvaríos: conocí que aun esto era aflicción de espíritu.
[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 Porque en la mucha sabiduría hay mucha molestia; y quien añade ciencia, añade dolor.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
