Psalmorum 137

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

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

2 In salicibus in medio ejus suspendimus organa nostra:

There on the willows 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 requested a song; our tormentors demanded songs of joy: “Sing us a song of Zion.”

4 Quomodo cantabimus canticum Domini in terra aliena?

How can we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land?

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

If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand cease to function.

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

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem as my greatest joy!

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

Remember, O LORD, the sons of Edom on the day Jerusalem fell: “Destroy it,” they said, “tear it down to its foundations!”

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

O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us.

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

Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.