Ecclesiastes 1
1 [I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
ダビデの子 ヱルサレムの王 傳道者の言
2 I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
傳道者言く 空の空 空の空なる哉 都て空なり
3 (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]
日の下に人の勞して爲ところの諸の動作はその身に何の益かあらん
4 [Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
世は去り世は來る 地は永久に長存なり
5 [Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
日は出で日は入り またその出し處に喘ぎゆくなり
6 The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
風は南に行き又轉りて北にむかひ 旋轉に旋りて行き 風復その旋轉る處にかへる。
7 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.
河はみな海に流れ入る 海は盈ること無し 河はその出きたれる處に復還りゆくなり
8 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.
萬の物は勞苦す 人これを言つくすことあたはず 目は見に飽ことなく耳は聞に充ること無し
9 [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].
曩に有し者はまた後にあるべし 曩に成し事はまた後に成べし 日の下には新しき者あらざるなり
10 Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
見よ是は新しき者なりと指て言べき物あるや 其は我等の前にありし世々に旣に久しくありたる者なり
11 [People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
己前のものの事はこれを記憶ることなし 以後のものの事もまた後に出る者これをおぼゆることあらじ
12 I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
われ傳道者はヱルサレムにありてイスラエルの王たりき
13 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.
我心を盡し智慧をもちひて天が下に行はるる諸の事を尋ねかつ考覈たり此苦しき事件は神が世の人にさづけて之に身を勞せしめたまふ者なり
14 It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
我日の下に作ところの諸の行爲を見たり 嗚呼皆空にして風を捕ふるがごとし
15 [Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
曲れる者は直からしむるあたはず缺たる者は數をあはするあたはず
16 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!”
我心の中に語りて言ふ 嗚呼我は大なる者となれり 我より先にヱルサレムにをりしすべての者よりも我は多くの智慧を得たり 我心は智慧と知識を多く得たり
17 [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.
我心を盡して智慧を知んとし狂妄と愚癡を知んとしたりしが 是も亦風を捕ふるがごとくなるを暁れり
18 The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
夫智慧多ければ憤激多し 知識を増す者は憂患を増す
