Eclesiastes 1
1 Dagitoy dagiti sasao ti Manursuro, ti kaputotan ni David ken ari iti Jerusalem.
[I am Solomon], the son of [King] David. [I rule] in Jerusalem [and people call me] ‘The (Preacher/Religious Teacher)’.
2 Ibagbaga ti Manursuro daytoy. “Kas iti alingasaw ti angep, kas iti pul-oy ti angin, mapukaw dagiti amin a banbanag, nga agibati iti adu a saludsod.
I say that everything is mysterious; everything is hard for me to understand; it is difficult to understand why everything happens.
3 Ania ti gungguna a magun-od ti sangkataoan manipud kadagiti amin a trabaho a pagbanbanoganda iti baba ti init?
(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 Lumabas ti maysa a henerasion, ket umay ti sabali a henerasion, ngem agtalinaed ti daga iti agnanayon.
[Each year] old people die and babies are born, but the earth never changes.
5 Agsingising ti init ken lumnek daytoy ket dagus nga agsubli manen iti lugar a pagsingsingisinganna.
[Each morning] the sun rises, and [each evening] it sets, and [then] it hurries around to where it started from.
6 Agpul-oy ti angin a paabagatan ken agrikus nga agpaamianan, agrikrikus a kankanayon iti dalanna ket agsubsubli manen.
The wind blows south, and then it [turns around to start blowing towards] the north. It goes around and around in circles.
7 Agay-ayus amin dagiti karayan iti baybay, ngem saan pulos a mapunno ti baybay. Iti lugar a pagturturungan dagiti karayan, sadiay manen ti papananda.
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 Makabannog amin a banbanag, ket awan ti siasinoman a makailawlawag iti daytoy. Saan a mapnek ti mata kadagiti makitkitana wenno mapno ti lapayag kadagiti mangmangngegna.
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 Aniaman dagiti napalabas ket isunto ti mapasamak ken aniaman dagiti naaramiden ket isunto ti maaramid. Awan iti barbaro iti baba ti init.
[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 Adda kadi iti aniaman a mabalin a maibaga, 'Kitaem, barbaro daytoy'? Aniaman nga adda ket addan iti nabayagen a panawen, kabayatan dagiti tawtawen a nabayagen a napalabas sakbay kadatayo.
Sometimes people say, “Look at this! This is something new [RHQ]!” But it has existed previously; it existed before we were born.
11 Kasla awan ti makalagip kadagiti banbanag a napasamak idi un-unana a tiempo. Ken dagiti banbanag a naud-udi a napasamak ken dagiti mapasamakto iti masakbayan ket saanto met laeng siguro a malagip.”
[People] do not remember the things [that happened] long ago, and in the future, people will not remember what we are doing now.
12 Siak ti Manursuro, ket nagturayak a kas ari iti Israel idiay Jerusalem.
I, the Religious Teacher, have been the king of Israel [for many years, ruling] in Jerusalem.
13 Inusarko ti panunotko a mangadal ken mangsukimat babaen iti kinasirib dagiti amin a banbanag a maar-aramid iti baba ti langit. Dayta a panagsukimat ket makabannog a trabaho nga inted ti Dios kadagiti annak dagiti tattao a pakakumikomanda.
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 Nakitak amin dagiti aramid a maar-aramid iti baba ti init ket kitaenyo, maiyarigda amin iti alingasaw ken panangpadas a mangpastor iti angin.
It seems that nothing that happens on the earth really enables us to do anything useful. It is [like] [MET] chasing the wind.
15 Saan a mailinteg ti killo! Saan a mabilang dagiti mapukpukaw!
[Many] things that are crooked cannot be caused to become straight; we cannot count things that do not exist.
16 Nagsaoak iti pusok, a kunak, “Kitaem, nakagun-odak iti ad-adu a kinasirib ngem kadagiti amin nga immun-una ngem siak ditoy Jerusalem. Nakakitan ti panunotko iti adu a kinasirib ken pannakaammo.”
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 Isu nga inusarko ti pusok tapno maammoak ti kinasirib ken kasta met ti kinamauyong ken kinamaag. Naawatak a daytoy ket panangpadas met laeng a mangpastor iti angin.
[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 Ta iti kinawadwad iti kinasirib, ad-adda iti pannakaupay, ken ti tao a manaynayunan ti pannakaammona, ad-adda ti panagladingit.
The wiser I became, the more disappointed I became. The more things I knew about, the sadder I became.
