ancient hebrew poetry

Psalm 137

By the rivers of Babylon
there we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion
on the willows in its midst
we hung our lyres

For there our captors
demanded words of song
our mockers mirth
sing for us
a song of Zion
how can we sing a song of Yahweh
on foreign soil?

If I forget you, Jerusalem
let my right hand wither
let my tongue cleave to my palate
if I do not remember you
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest delight

Remember, Yahweh,
against the Edomites
that day of Jerusalem
when they said, lay bare, lay bare
the foundation of it

Lovely Babylon, the doomed
how happy he who rewards you
with the portion you apportioned us
how happy he who seizes and dashes
your infants against the rock Psalm 137

John Hobbins, of ancient hebrew poetry, learned Hebrew in high school and has been developing his interest in translating Hebrew poetry all his life. He has recently adapted many of his poems so they would be easier to post on the internet in plain text. Thanks John. I am very happy to share this translation along with your many essays and posts on Hebrew poetry.

John writes about his poetry,

The goal has been to furnish a global approximation of the poetry and prosody of the Hebrew text, even if the results are necessarily piecemeal. The rich texture of the original cannot be mapped onto a translation except in fits and starts. I sometimes retain, in imitation of the Hebrew, examples of chiasm, inversion, and ellipsis which perforce result in a less idiomatic rendering.

It is not possible, of course, to reproduce every case of two stresses in a row in the original or to suppress every case of two stresses in a row in translation without analogy in the original. Nevertheless, some attempt has been made to mimic the overall frequency of stress clash in the Hebrew text. The reproduction of metrical feet in translation is a daunting task. Some attempt has been made to represent shorter feet in Hebrew with shorter feet in English, and longer with longer, but no attempt has been made to avoid dactyls and first class paeons, though of course they are non-existent in Hebrew.