1I said in my heart, `Pray, come, I try thee with mirth, and look thou on gladness;` and lo, even it [is] vanity.
2Of laughter I said, `Foolish!` and of mirth, `What [is] this it is doing?`
3I have sought in my heart to draw out with wine my appetite, (and my heart leading in wisdom), and to take hold on folly till that I see where [is] this -- the good to the sons of man of that which they do under the heavens, the number of the days of their lives.
4I made great my works, I builded for me houses, I planted for me vineyards.
5I made for me gardens and paradises, and I planted in them trees of every fruit.
6I made for me pools of water, to water from them a forest shooting forth trees.
7I got men-servants, and maid-servants, and sons of the house were to me; also, I had much substance -- herd and flock -- above all who had been before me in Jerusalem.
