Psalmorum 137

1 Psalmus David, Jeremiæ. [Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus, cum recordaremur Sion.

By the waters of Babylon there we sat, and we wept at the thought of Zion.

2 In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra:

There on the poplars we hung our harps.

3 quia illic interrogaverunt nos, qui captivos duxerunt nos, verba cantionum; et qui abduxerunt nos: Hymnum cantate nobis de canticis Sion.

For there our captors called for a song: our tormentors, rejoicing, saying: ‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’

4 Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena?

How can we sing the Lord’s song in the foreigner’s land?

5 Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea.

If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither.

6 Adhæreat lingua mea faucibus meis, si non meminero tui; si non proposuero Jerusalem in principio lætitiæ meæ.

May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I am unmindful of you, or don’t set Jerusalem above my chief joy.

7 Memor esto, Domine, filiorum Edom, in die Jerusalem: qui dicunt: Exinanite, exinanite usque ad fundamentum in ea.

Remember the Edomites, Lord, the day of Jerusalem’s fall, when they said, ‘Lay her bare, lay her bare, right down to her very foundation.’

8 Filia Babylonis misera! beatus qui retribuet tibi retributionem tuam quam retribuisti nobis.

Babylon, despoiler, happy are those who pay you back for all you have done to us.

9 Beatus qui tenebit, et allidet parvulos tuos ad petram.]

Happy are they who seize and dash your children against the rocks.