Rhyming Ecclesiastes: Chapter 10

Rhyming Ecclesiastes: Chapter 10

As dead flies give perfume a smell that’s brown,
a little folly, wisdom, honor, drowns.
The hearts of wise men, to the right, incline,
the fools’, the left, they’re sinister, defined.
E’en as fools walk along the road, no sense,
to everyone, stupidity’s expressed.
If ‘gainst you does a ruler’s anger rise,
don’t leave your post; your calmness, it can lay
to rest offenses that seem heavy, grave.

There is an evil I’ve seen ‘neath the sun,
the sort of error that arises from
a ruler: high positions filled with fools,
while rich men, only lower places, rule.
I have seen slaves, on horseback they will ride,
while princes go on foot, slaves, they are like.

Whoe’er will dig a pit may fall to it;
who breaks a wall, by snakes he may be bit.
Who quarries stones may, by them, injured, be;
whoe’er splits logs, they’re, him, endangering.

If dull, the axe, unsharpened is its edge,
more strength required, but skill will bring success.

If, prior to its charm, the snake will bite,
the charmer will, from that, no fee derive.

They’re gracious, words a wise man’s mouth will quip,
but fools are e’er consumed by their own lips.
At the beginning, folly, all their words;
and wicked madness, at the end, they are–
and fools, their words will always multiply.

Nobody knows what’s coming–what transpires,
whoe’er can tell, what happens after them,
somebody else? The fools’ toil: wearisome;
they do not know the way back into town.

Woe to the land whose king is but a child,
whose princes feast, but in the morning time.
Blessed land whose king, of the nobility,
whose princes’ eating times set properly–
they’re ne’er for drunkenness, but only strength.

Through laziness, the house’s rafters creak;
because of idle hands, the house will leak.

Wine makes life merry, feasts are made for laughs,
for everything, the answer, money, is.

Not even in your thoughts, revile the king,
or curse the rich, your bedroom, there, within,
your words, by air, a bird could carry them,
and also, one, a bird that’s on the wing
may tell, report what you’ve said, everything.