By Babylon's streams,
                       there we sat, oh we wept,
                                   when we recalled Zion.
On the poplars there
                     we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors had asked of us
                      words of song,
and our plunderers - rejoicing:
                     "Sing us from Zion's songs."
How can we sing a song of the LORD
                     on foreign soil?
Should I forget you, Jerusalem,
                      may my right hand wither.
May my tongue cleave to my palate
                       if I do not recall you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
                      above my chief joy.
Recall, O LORD, the Edomites,
                      on the day of Jerusalem, saying:
"Raze it, raze it,
                       to its foundation!"
Daughter of Babylon the despoiler,
                      happy who pays you back in kind,
                                   for what you did to us.
Happy who seizes and smashes
                      your infants against the rock.


 Psalm 137
(translated by Robert Alter)