² “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
    says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
    Everything is meaningless.”^(A)

⁴ They are like a breath;^(A)
    their days are like a fleeting shadow.^(B)

¹⁰ Whoever loves money never has enough;
    whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
    This too is meaningless.

⁸ “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.^[a](A)
    “Everything is meaningless!^(B)”

⁵ You have made my days^(A) a mere handbreadth;
    the span of my years is as nothing before you.
Everyone is but a breath,^(B)
    even those who seem secure.^[a]

⁶ “Surely everyone goes around^(C) like a mere phantom;^(D)
    in vain they rush about,^(E) heaping up wealth^(F)
    without knowing whose it will finally be.^(G)

¹¹ Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;^(A)
    nothing was gained under the sun.^(B)