OK, this is the last of the songs Praise to God sourced from All Together Again, for which I am grateful, needing a break from mostly American folk mass era songs for a while. They do, however, remind me of the wonderful and ever growing resource we are given with the Godsongs website.
This one, however, is traditional C18 English, adapted from Phillip Hayes’s hymn. It is for any circumstance where lament is the only appropriate response.
In the extremely unlikely event you are playing this from the PTG hymn book, there is an error – the first “Zi-” is a G# not a G.
I made a backing, but everyone knows this one.
The text though is up for grabs. Godsongs has these:
By the waters, the waters of Babylon,
We sat down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion.
We remember, we remember, we remember, thee Zion.On the willows, the willows of Babylon,
We hung up our harps our harps, for thee Zion.
How can we sing, how can we sing, how can we sing of Zion,There our captors, our captors from Babylon,
Tried to make us sing, and sing, of thee Zion.
We could not sing, we could not sing, we could not sing of Zion.
PTG has two verses by the editor, Nicolas Falzun.
By the waters, the waters of Babylon,
We sat down and wept, and wept, for thee Zion.
We remember, we remember, we remember, thee Zion.On the poplars, the poplars we hung our harps,
They asked us to sing, to sing, of thee Zion.
How could we sing, how could we sing, while we’re in captivity.Let our voices, our voices, sing praise to thee,
May we not forget thee, forget thee, our greatest joy!
We remember, we remember, we remember, thee Zion.
The first verse is all that is needed, preferably as a round.