10. All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.
11. When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.
12. Then I turned to consider wisdom, madness, and folly, for what will the man be like who comes after the king? He will do what has already been done.
13. And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.
14. The wise man has eyes in his head,but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also knew that one fate comes to them both.
15. So I said to myself, “What happens to the fool will also happen to me. Why then have I been overly wise? ” And I said to myself that this is also futile.
16. For, just like the fool, there is no lasting remembrance of the wise man, since in the days to come both will be forgotten. How is it that the wise man dies just like the fool?
17. Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
18. I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.