Liber Ecclesiastes, 11
1. Mitte panem tuum super transeuntes aquas, quia post tempora multa invenies illum.
1. Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.
2. Da partem septem necnon et octo, quia ignoras, quid futurum sit mali super terram.
2. Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what evil may happen on earth.
3. Si repletae fuerint nubes, imbrem super terram effundent; si ceciderit lignum ad austrum aut ad aquilonem, in quocumque loco ceciderit, ibi erit.
3. If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
4. Qui observat ventum, non seminat, et, qui considerat nubes, numquam metet.
4. He who observes the wind will not sow; and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5. Quomodo ignoras, quae sit via spiritus, et qua ratione compingantur ossa in ventre praegnantis, sic nescis opera Dei, qui fabricator est omnium.
5. As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
6. Mane semina semen tuum, et vespere ne cesset manus tua, quia nescis quid magis prosit, hoc aut illud, et si utrumque simul melius erit.
6. In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
7. Dulce lumen, et delectabile est oculis videre solem.
7. Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun.
8. Si annis multis vixerit homo et in his omnibus laetatus fuerit, meminisse debet tenebrosi temporis, quod multum erit: omne, quod venerit, vanitas.
8. For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.
9. Laetare ergo, iuvenis, in adulescentia tua, et in bono sit cor tuum in diebus iuventutis tuae, et ambula in viis cordis tui et in intuitu oculorum tuorum et scito quod pro omnibus his adducet te Deus in iudicium.
9. Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
10. Aufer curam a corde tuo et amove malum a carne tua; adulescentia enim et iuventus vanae sunt.
10. Remove vexation from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
