The poet now speaks again for the whole community. Since community life is so totally disrupted that the old men have ceased to advise, and the young men to play their instruments, The joy of our hearts translates the Hebrew literally and clearly for English. Heart is here taken as the center of emotions. The expression refers to the feeling of happiness. Ceased translates the same verb used in “old men have quit” in verse 14. Good News Translation says this effectively: “Happiness has gone out of our lives,” or Bible en français courant “Our hearts have ceased to be happy.”

The expression our dancing has been turned to mourning may have to be expressed differently in some languages, particularly where dancing is associated with particular occasions or purposes such as healing or rain making, but not principally with the celebration of happiness. Accordingly we may sometimes say, for example, “We used to dance because we were happy; now we only mourn because we are sad.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .