By the rivers dark

I wandered on.

I lived my life

in Babylon.



And I did forget

My holy song:

And I had no strength

In Babylon.



By the rivers dark

Where I could not see

Who was waiting there

Who was hunting me.



And he cut my lip

And he cut my heart.

So I could not drink

From the river dark.



And he covered me,

And I saw within,

My lawless heart

And my wedding ring,



I did not know

And I could not see

Who was waiting there,

Who was hunting me.



By the rivers dark

I panicked on.

I belonged at last

to Babylon.



Then he struck my heart

With a deadly force,

And he said, ‘This heart:

It is not yours.’



And he gave the wind

My wedding ring;

And he circled us

With everything.



By the rivers dark,

In a wounded dawn,

I live my life

In Babylon.



Though I take my song

From a withered limb,

Both song and tree,

They sing for him.



Be the truth unsaid

And the blessing gone,

If I forget

My Babylon.



I did not know

And I could not see

Who was waiting there,

Who was hunting me.



By the rivers dark,

Where it all goes on;

By the rivers dark

In Babylon.