Ecclesiastes
1 This one na the things wey the person wey de gather people together,* wey be the son of David, the king for Jerusalem don talk.
2 “The thing wey useless pass!”* na so the person wey de gather people together talk-am,
“The thing wey useless pass! Everything dey useless!”
3 Wetin person de gain from all the hard work wey e de do
Wey e de suffer for under the sun?
4 One generation de go and another generation de come,
But the earth go dey* forever.
5 Sun de come out,* and sun de go down;
Then e go rush go back* to the place wey e go come out from again.
6 Breeze de blow go south and e de turn round de go north;
Na so e de go round and round and e no de stop; and na round-round breeze de blow go.
7 All the streams* de flow enter sea, even with that one, sea no de full.
Na the place wey the streams de flow from, na there them de go back to, so that them go fit flow again.
8 Everything de tire person;
Nobody fit even talk about-am.
Eye no de tire to see;
And ear no de tire to hear.
9 Wetin don dey na wetin go still dey,
And wetin them don do before na im them go do again;
Nothing dey new under the sun.
10 Anything dey wey person go fit talk about say, “See this one—na new thing”?
E don already dey since;
E don already dey before our time.
11 Nobody de remember people wey don live before-before;
And nobody go remember people wey de come after;
And people wey go still come after them no go remember them.
12 Me, the person wey de gather people together, don de rule Israel as king for Jerusalem. 13 I don decide for my heart to use sense study and find out everything wey them don do under the heavens—the suffer-head work wey God don give the sons of men wey de make them dey busy.
14 I see everything wey people de do under the sun,
And see! everything dey useless, na breeze person de run follow.
15 Something wey don bend-bend, them no fit make-am straight,
And them no fit count something wey no dey.
16 Then I talk for inside my heart say: “See! I don get plenty sense pass anybody wey don dey Jerusalem before me, and my heart don get plenty sense and know plenty things.” 17 I put my heart to sabi sense and to know madness* and to know foolishness, and this one too na breeze wey person de run follow.
18 Too much sense de cause plenty pain,
Na im make anybody wey de increase the things wey e know de increase pain.