Super Flumina Babylonis

(Ps. cxxxvi.)

BY the waters of the river —
Close by Babylon it swept — •
On the banks — my tears were flowing —
There I set me down and wept.

I remembered thee, O Sion,
With thy love my heart was sore ;
Sweet to me was thy memorial,
So I wept still more and more,

Of my festal robes divested,
Those of woe around me flung,
While my silent harp suspended
From the willow branches hung.

There I left it ; fondly trusting,
For my hopes in thee still lay.
Love my heart had deeply wounded,
And had carried it away.
So, I said, my wound is grievous ;
O let love me wholly slay.
Into its fires then I threw me,
That I might be burned away.

Now the silly moth I blame not,
That in the fire seeks its death
For I, while in myself but dying,
Draw in thee alone my breath.
I for thee to death submitted,
And for thee to life returned ;
For in thy most sweet memorial
Life and death were both inurned.

In their merriment exulting,
Heedless of their captive's wrongs,
Strangers bade me rise and sing them
Sion's old familiar songs.

Sing us of the songs of Sion ;
We would hear them — strange demand-
How can I, lamenting Sion,
Sing them in a foreign land ?

In the chants once so familiar
How can I uplift my voice ?
May they never be remembered
If in exile I rejoice !

Let my tongue from speech refraining,
To my palate silent cleave ;
If I, in the land of exile,
Where I dwell alone and grieve,

Even amidst the verdant bowers
Of the Babylonic land
Should forget thee. Let my right hand
Cease its cunning to command

If I make not thee, O Sion,
The beginning of my mirth;
Or if I rejoice in keeping
Any festival of earth.

Thou, of Babylon the daughter,
Shalt lie prostrate in the dust,
Lost and wretched : but for ever
Blest is He in Whom I trust.

In the day of retribution
He will thee at last afflict ;
He will lay on thee the burden
Thou didst once on me inflict,

He will me, thy weeping captive,
With thy little children take,
And to Christ the Rock will bring them-
I have left thee for His sake.