Dixi ego in corde meo: Vadam, et affluam deliciis, et fruar bonis; et vidi quod hoc quoque esset vanitas.

I SAID in my heart: I will go, and abound with delights, and enjoy good things. And I saw that this also was vanity.

Next, I thought to give the rein to my desires, and enjoy pleasure, until I found that this, too, was labour lost.

Risum reputavi errorem, et gaudio dixi: Quid frustra deciperis?

Laughter I counted error: and to mirth I said: Why art thou vainly deceived?

Wouldst thou know how I learned to find laughter an empty thing, and all joy a vain illusion;

Cogitavi in corde meo abstrahere a vino carnem meam, ut animam meam transferrem ad sapientiam, devitaremque stultitiam, donec viderem quid esset utile filiis hominum, quo facto opus est sub sole numero dierum vitæ suæ.

I thought in my heart, to withdraw my flesh from wine, that I might turn my mind to wisdom, and might avoid folly, till I might see what was profitable for the children of men: and what they ought to do under the sun, all the days of their life.

how I resolved at last to deny myself the comfort of wine, wisdom now all my quest, folly disowned? For I could not rest until I knew where man’s true good lay, what was his life’s true task, here under the sun.

Magnificavi opera mea, ædificavi mihi domos, et plantavi vineas;

I made me great works, I built me houses, and planted vineyards,

Great plans I set on foot; I would build palaces, I would plant vineyards,

feci hortos et pomaria, et consevi ea cuncti generis arboribus;

I made gardens, and orchards, and set them with trees of all kinds,

I would have park and orchard, planted with every kind of tree;

et exstruxi mihi piscinas aquarum, ut irrigarem silvam lignorum germinantium.

And I made me ponds of water, to water therewith the wood of the young trees,

and to water all this greenery there must be pools of water besides.

Possedi servos et ancillas, multamque familiam habui: armenta quoque, et magnos ovium greges, ultra omnes qui fuerunt ante me in Jerusalem;

I got me menservants, and maidservants, and had a great family: and herds of oxen, and great flocks of sheep, above all that were before me in Jerusalem:

Men-slaves I bought and women-slaves, till I had a great retinue of them; herds, too, and abundance of flocks, such as Jerusalem never saw till then.

coacervavi mihi argentum et aurum, et substantias regum ac provinciarum; feci mihi cantores et cantatrices, et delicias filiorum hominum, scyphos, et urceos in ministerio ad vina fundenda;

I heaped together for myself silver and gold, and the wealth of kings, and provinces: I made me singing men, and singing women, and the delights of the sons of men, cups and vessels to serve to pour out wine:

Gold and silver I amassed, revenues of subject king and subject province; men-singers I had and women-singers, and all that man delights in; beakers a many, and jars of wine to fill them.

et supergressus sum opibus omnes qui ante me fuerunt in Jerusalem: sapientia quoque perseveravit mecum.

And I surpassed in riches all that were before me in Jerusalem: my wisdom also remained with me.

Never had Jerusalem known such wealth; yet in the midst of it, wisdom never left my side.

Et omnia quæ desideraverunt oculi mei non negavi eis, nec prohibui cor meum quin omni voluptate frueretur, et oblectaret se in his quæ præparaveram; et hanc ratus sum partem meam si uterer labore meo.

And whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not: and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared: and esteemed this my portion, to make use of my own labour.

Eyes denied nothing that eyes could covet, a heart stinted of no enjoyment, free of all the pleasures I had devised for myself, this was to be my reward, this the fruit of all my labours.

Cumque me convertissem ad universa opera quæ fecerant manus meæ, et ad labores in quibus frustra sudaveram, vidi in omnibus vanitatem et afflictionem animi, et nihil permanere sub sole.

And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labours wherein I had laboured in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun.

And now, when I looked round at all I had done, all that ungrateful drudgery, nothing I found there but frustration and labour lost, so fugitive is all we cherish, here under the sun.

Transivi ad contemplandam sapientiam, erroresque, et stultitiam. (Quid est, inquam, homo, ut sequi possit regem, factorem suum?)

I passed further to behold wisdom, and errors and folly, (What is man, said I, that he can follow the King his maker?)

Then my mind went back to the thought of wisdom, of ignorance, too, and folly. What (thought I), should mortal king strive to imitate the sovereign power that made him?

Et vidi quod tantum præcederet sapientia stultitiam, quantum differt lux a tenebris.

And I saw that wisdom excelled folly, as much as light differeth from darkness.

I saw, indeed, that wisdom differed from folly as light from darkness;

Sapientis oculi in capite ejus; stultus in tenebris ambulat: et didici quod unus utriusque esset interitus.

The eyes of a wise man are in his head: the fool walketh in darkness: and I learned that they were to die both alike.

the wise man had eyes in his head, while the fool went his way benighted; but the ending of them? In their ending both were alike.

Et dixi in corde meo: Si unus et stulti et meus occasus erit, quid mihi prodest quod majorem sapientiæ dedi operam? Locutusque cum mente mea, animadverti quod hoc quoque esset vanitas.

And I said in my heart: If the death of the fool and mine shall be one, what doth it avail me, that I have applied myself more to the study of wisdom? And speaking with my own mind, I perceived that this also was vanity.

Why then (I said to myself), if fool and I must come to the same end at last, was not I the fool, that toiled to achieve wisdom more than he? So my thoughts ran, and I found labour lost, here too.

Non enim erit memoria sapientis similiter ut stulti in perpetuum, et futura tempora oblivione cuncta pariter operient: moritur doctus similiter ut indoctus.

For there shall be no remembrance of the wise no more than of the fool for ever, and the times to come shall cover all things together with oblivion: the learned dieth in like manner as the unlearned.

Endlessly forgotten, wise man and fool alike, since to-morrow’s memory will be no longer than yesterday’s; wise man and fool alike doomed to death.

Et idcirco tæduit me vitæ meæ, videntem mala universa esse sub sole, et cuncta vanitatem et afflictionem spiritus.

And therefore I was weary of my life, when I saw that all things under the sun are evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit.

Thus I became weary of life itself; so worthless it seemed to me, all that man does beneath the sun, frustration all of it, and labour lost. And I, beneath that same sun, what fond labours I had spent!

Rursus detestatus sum omnem industriam meam, qua sub sole studiosissime laboravi, habiturus hæredem post me,

Again I hated all my application wherewith I had earnestly laboured under the sun, being like to have an heir after me,

I hated the thought of them now; should heir of mine succeed to them?

quem ignoro utrum sapiens an stultus futurus sit, et dominabitur in laboribus meis, quibus desudavi et sollicitus fui: et est quidquam tam vanum?

Whom I know not whether he will be a wise man or a fool, and he shall have rule over all my labours with which I have laboured and been solicitous: and is there any thing so vain?

An heir, would he be wise man or fool? None could tell; but his would be the possession of all I had toiled for so hard, schemed for so anxiously; could there be frustration worse than this?

Unde cessavi, renuntiavitque cor meum ultra laborare sub sole.

Wherefore I left off and my heart renounced labouring any more under the sun.

I would hold my hand; no more should yonder sun see labours of mine.

Nam cum alius laboret in sapientia, et doctrina, et sollicitudine, homini otioso quæsita dimittit; et hoc ergo vanitas et magnum malum.

For when a man laboureth in wisdom, and knowledge, and carefulness, he leaveth what he hath gotten to an idle man: so this also is vanity, and a great evil.

What, should one man go on toiling, his the craft, his the skill, his the anxious care, leaving all to another, and an idler? That were frustration surely, and great mischief done.

Quid enim proderit homini de universo labore suo, et afflictione spiritus, qua sub sole cruciatus est?

For what profit shall a man have of all his labour, and vexation of spirit, with which he hath been tormented under the sun?

Tell me, how is a man the richer for all that toil of his, all that lost labour of his, here under the sun?

Cuncti dies ejus doloribus et ærumnis pleni sunt, nec per noctem mente requiescit. Et hoc nonne vanitas est?

All his days are full of sorrows and miseries, even in the night he doth not rest in mind: and is not this vanity?

His days all painfulness and care, his very nights restless; what is here but frustration?

Nonne melius est comedere et bibere, et ostendere animæ suæ bona de laboribus suis? et hoc de manu Dei est.

Is it not better to eat and drink, and to shew his soul good things of his labours? and this is from the hand of God.

Were it not better to eat and drink, and toil only at his own pleasures? These, too, come from God’s hand;

Quis ita devorabit et deliciis affluet ut ego?

Who shall so feast and abound with delights as I?

and who has better right to food tasted and pleasure enjoyed than I?

Homini bono in conspectu suo dedit Deus sapientiam, et scientiam, et lætitiam; peccatori autem dedit afflictionem et curam superfluam, ut addat, et congreget, et tradat ei qui placuit Deo; sed et hoc vanitas est, et cassa sollicitudo mentis.

God hath given to a man that is good in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and superfluous care, to heap up and to gather together, and to give it to him that hath pleased God: but this also is vanity, and a fruitless solicitude of the mind.

Who wins God’s favour, has wisdom and skill for his reward, and pleasure too; it is the sinner that is doomed to hardship and to thankless care, hoarding and scraping, and all to enrich some heir God loves better! For him frustration, for him the labour lost.