Psalms 137

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

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

2 There on the poplars we hung our harps.

In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra:

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

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

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

Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena?

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

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

6 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.

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

7 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.’

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

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

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

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

Beatus qui tenebit, et allidet parvulos tuos ad petram.