Psalmorum 137

1 Psalmus David, Hieremiæ. 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 eius, 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 Ierusalem, 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 Ierusalem, 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 Ierusalem: 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.