Psalmorum 137

1 Psalmus David, Ieremiæ. Super flumina Babylonis, illic sedimus et flevimus: cum recordaremur Sion:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we thought about Zion.

2 In salicibus in medio eius, suspendimus organa nostra.

On the poplars there 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.

There our captors required songs from us, and those who mocked us required us to be happy, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”

4 Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena?

How could we sing a song about Yahweh in a foreign land?

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

If I ignore the memory of you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her skill.

6 Adhæreat lingua mea faucibus meis, si non meminero tui: Si non proposuero Ierusalem, in principio lætitiæ meæ.

Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I think about you no more, if I do not prefer Jerusalem more than my greatest delights.

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

Call to mind, Yahweh, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. They said, “Tear it down, tear it down to its foundations.”

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

Daughter of Babylon, soon to be destroyed— may the person be blessed, whoever pays you back for what you have done to us.

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

May the person be blessed, whoever takes and dashes your little ones against a rock.