A
reggae song originally by
The Melodians, later covered by
Boney M and others. Like the song
Waters of Babylon and
Lord Byron's poem
By The Rivers of Babylon We Sat Down and Wept, it is based on
Psalm 137. Here are the lyrics, as I hear them:
By The Rivers of Babylon
Where we sat down
And there we wept
When we remembered Zion
'Cause the wicked
Carried us away - captivity!
Required from us a song
How can we sing the Lord's song
In a strange land?
So let the words of our mouth
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in thy sight
O, Far I.
By The Rivers of Babylon is also the name of a collection of reggae and traditional songs on the Shanachie label; a book about the German lyric poet Heinrich Heine (1797–1856), by Roger F. Cook; a highly regarded trilogy of books by Slovakian author Peter Pistanek (Piš?ánek), not yet translated into English; and a 1998 film based on this trilogy, by Vlado Balco. The film has won high praise from some quarters, but many fans of the books dislike the way its light, hedonistic style has been replaced by bleak, gray political allegory.