If I forget you, Jerusalem … If I forget you, Paul VI, still living (112 years) …

1 On the edges of the rivers of Babylon, we sat all in tears in the memory of Zion.
2 We had suspended our harps to the willows of this country 3 because those that had deported us demanded us a canticle, and our oppressors required one hymn of joy:
“Sing us so one of the canticles of Zion!”

4 How could we sing a canticle of the Lord on a foreign country?
5 If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand be paralyzed!
6 Let my tongue remain fastened to my palate, if I do not keep your memory, if I do not put Jerusalem in the first rank of my joys.

7 Against the sons of Edom, remember, Lord, of the day when fell Jerusalem, when they exclaimed: "Destroy, destroy her until her foundations!”
"8 Girl of devastating Babylon, happy the one that will make you the evil that you made us!
9 Happy the one that will seize your little children to crush them against the rock!"(*1)

(*1) Words of a rare violence needing a commentary.