Psalmorum 137

1 Psalmus David, propter Hieremiam. 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 eius, 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 Ierusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea.

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

6 Adhaereat lingua mea faucibus meis, si non meminero tui: Si non proposuero Ierusalem, in principio laetitiae meae.

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 Ierusalem: 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 suos ad petram.

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