 Life is Useless* "Life is useless, all useless. "You spend your life working, labouring, "And what do you have to show for it?" "Generations come and generations go, "But the world stays just the same. "The sun still rises in the east, "And it still goes down in the west, "Going wearily back, "To where it must start all over again." "The wind blows south, "The wind blows north, "Round and round, "And back again." "Every river flows into the sea, "But the sea is never full. "The water returns to where the rivers began, "And starts all over again." "Everything leads to weariness, "A weariness too great for words. "Our eyes can never see enough to be satisfied; "Our ears can never hear enough." "What has happened before will happen again. "What has been done before will be done again. "There is nothing new in this whole wide world." "They may say, 'Look, here is something new!' "But no, it has all happened before, long before we were born. "No one remembers what has happened in the past, "And no one in the days to come will remember, "What happens between now and then." "No one remembers wise men, "And no one remembers fools. "In the days to come, we will all be forgotten. "We must all die, wise men and fools alike." "So life came to mean absolutely nothing to me, "Because everything in it brought me nothing but trouble. "It had all been useless, all useless; "It is like chasing the wind." --Ecclesiastes * Quoted from the Holy Bible in Today's English Version. Many have taken comfort in seeing themselves in the mirror of Ecclesiastes, and have discovered that the same Scriptures which reflects these thoughts also offers the hope in God that gives life its greater meaning. |
