{I said to myself}, "Look! I have become great and have increased [in] wisdom more than anyone who {has preceded} me over Jerusalem. {I have acquired a great deal of wisdom and knowledge}."

Certainly no one will remember the wise man or the fool in {future generations}. When [future] days come, both will have been forgotten already. How [is it that] the wise man dies the same as the fool?

So I hated all my toil with which I have toiled under the sun, for I must leave it behind to someone who will be after me.

I have seen the busyness God gives to {humans} to preoccupy them.

So I deemed the dead who have already died more [fortunate] than the living who are still alive.

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth {hoarded} by its owner to his harm.

Look! I have discovered what is good and fitting: to eat and to drink and {to enjoy} all [the fruit of] the toil with which one toils under the sun during the number of the days of his life that God gives to him--for this [is] his lot.

Here is another misfortune that I have seen under the sun, and it [is] prevalent among humankind.

So do the wise [really] have an advantage over fools? {Can the poor [really] gain anything by knowing how to act in front of others}?

I have seen all these things in my vain life: Sometimes a righteous man perishes in [spite of] his righteousness, and sometimes a wicked man lives a long life in [spite of] his evil.

For your heart knows that you also have cursed others many times.

All this I have tested with wisdom. I said, "I will be wise!" but {it was beyond my grasp}.

Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes."

For the living know that they will die, but the dead do not know anything. They no longer have a reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

What they loved and hated, as well as what they desired, has already perished. They no longer have any share in what is done under the sun.

I have also seen this [example of] wisdom under the sun, and it [seemed] great to me.

There is an evil I have seen under the sun-- [it is] an error that proceeds from a ruler!

I have even seen slaves [riding] on horses and princes walking like slaves on the earth!