Exils

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Original text:

Super flumina Babylonis illic sedimus et flevimus cum recordaremur Sion
In salicibus in medio eius suspendimus organa nostra
Quia illic interrogaverunt nos qui captivos duxerunt nos verba cantionum
et qui abduxerunt nos hymnum cantate nobis de canticis Sion
Quomodo cantabimus canticum
Domini in terra aliena
Si oblitus fuero tui Hierusalem oblivioni detur dextera mea
Adhereat lingua mea faucibus meis si non meminero tui si non praeposuero
Hierusalem in principio laetitiae meae
Memor esto Domine filiorum Edom diem
Hierusalem qui dicunt exinanite exinanite usque ad fundamentum in ea
Filia Babylonis misera beatus qui retribuet tibi retributionem tuam quam retribuisti nobis
Beatus qui tenebit et adlidet parvulos tuos ad petrams


English translation:

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”
How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?
If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.
Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell.
“Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!”
Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us.
Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.


Text from Psalm 137