Rhyming Ecclesiastes: Chapter 2

Rhyming Ecclesiastes: Chapter 2

Pleasures Are Meaningless

I, to myself said, “Come now, I will test
you, all the ways that pleasure is expressed,
what things are good.” This proved as meaningless,
as well to be. I said, “This madness, is,
my laughter. And what it accomplishes,
my pleasure?” I tried cheering up myself–
with folly, wine, embracing that as well,
my mind still guiding me with wisdom yet.
I wished to see what things, on goodness, set,
for people to, beneath the heavens, do,
what pass-times for their lives’ days, numbered few.

I undertook great projects, houses built,
myself, them for, some vineyards I did plant.
I made some gardens, parks, I planted trees,
all kinds of fruiting, in them. Reservoirs,
I made, to water flour’shing trees in groves.
I bought both male and also female slaves,
and others, to my house, by birth conveyed.
I also owned more herds, and too, flocks, more
than any in Jerusalem before.
I, silver, gold, amassed both for myself,
kings’ treasures, and some provinces as well.
Both male and female singers I acquired,
a harem, too, delights man’s heart desires.
Than any in Jerusalem before,
became much greater, I, excelled by far.
In all this, all my wisdom I still held.

No thing my eyes desired, denied myself;
no pleasure I refused to give my heart.
My heart, in all my labor, took delight,
this, the reward, from all my toil derived.
Yet when I, all my hands had done, surveyed,
and what I’d toiled at, to achieve, those days,
that everything was meaningless, its sum:
a chasing of the wind beneath the sun,
and nothing gained, there was no new thing won.

Wisdom and Folly Are Meaningless

To wisdom, to consider it, my thoughts,
I turned, and also madness, folly, sought.
What more can the successor of the king
do than what has been done, precedingly?
I saw that wisdom is to be preferred
to folly, as the dark, to light, defers.
The wise have eyes to see placed in their heads,
while fools will walk in darkness; but instead,
I realized the same fate o’ertakes them both,

Then I said to myself, “It’s the fool’s fate,
that will, me, just as him, soon overtake.
What then, by having wisdom, can I gain?”
I, to myself said, “This is meaningless
as well.” For of the wise, remembrances
dismissed, and they’re forgotten just as fools;
the days have come, already when, eschewed,
the memories of both. Fools are just like
the wise, when both of them will someday die!

Toil Is Meaningless

So then I hated life, because the work
that’s done beneath the sun was grievous, sure,
to me. All of it, seen as meaningless,
a chasing after wind. What I’d detest?
I hated all things I’d toiled for beneath
the sun, because to them, whom I must leave,
to someone else who’s coming after me.
And who knows whether, how my heirs would be,
wise, foolish? Yet they will have full control
o’er all of it, the fruit that’s from my toil
into which I’ve poured all my effort, skill
beneath the sun. And I saw this as well
was meaningless. So my heart, it began
to feel despair o’er all my toiling hands
have labored at beneath the sun. With skill,
with knowledge, wisdom, in their laboring,
a person, someone who’s inheriting,
ne’er toiled, all that they own to someone else,
they leave them. This too, something meaningless
and a misfortune, great. What people get,
for all their anxious striving that they spend,
their labor underneath the sun? Their work,
all of their days, is grief and pain; disturbed,
at night, e’en then their minds can find no rest.
This also something that is meaningless.

A person can do nothing better than
to eat and drink, find satisfaction in
their toil, their own. Too, from the hand of God,
is this, I see, for who can eat or find
enjoyment without him? Who pleases him,
unto that person, God will wisdom, give,
too, knowledge, happiness, but him who sins,
to him, he gives the task of gathering
and storing wealth up for distributing,
to hand it over to one pleasing God.
This too is meaningless, like chasing wind.