1There is an evil I have seen under the sun, and it is common among people:
2God gives a man riches, wealth and honour, so that he lacks nothing his soul desires. Yet God does not give him the power to enjoy it, and a stranger enjoys it instead. This is empty, and it is a terrible sickness.
3A man may be the father of a hundred children and live many years, so that the days of his years are many. But if his soul is not filled with good, and if he has no burial, I say that a child born dead is better off than he is.
4For that child comes in with emptiness, and goes away in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness.
5It has never seen the sun, and has known nothing. Yet it has more rest than that man.
6Even if the man lives a thousand years twice over, he has seen no good. Do not all go to one place?
7All a man's work is for his mouth, and still his appetite is not filled.
8For what does the wise man have more than the fool? What does the poor man have, who knows how to walk before the living?
9Better is what the eyes see than the wandering of desire. This too is empty, like chasing the wind.
10Whatever exists has already been named, and it is known what man is. He cannot argue with one who is mightier than he.
11Since there are many things that only increase emptiness, what is a man the better for them?
12For who knows what is good for a man in this life, through all the days of his empty life, which he spends like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?