Psalmorum 137

1 David Hieremiae 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 Hierusalem oblivioni detur dextera mea

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

6 adhereat lingua mea faucibus meis si non meminero tui si non praeposuero Hierusalem 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 diem Hierusalem 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 adlidet parvulos tuos ad petram

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