583 The cemet’ry a deth I (Er cimiterio de la morte I)
Translated by Peter Nicholas Dale
 
I'd cum back from Our Lady’s a the Vegie-Patch
With that basket grocer, an then wen’ with me mate,
That crippled commissioner uv alms, ta catch
Up with his mob at their cemet’ry an celebrate.
 
Gazen at the skeletuns, I cudn't help but note
That a man’ut’s alive’s jus like a man’ut’s ded:
It's a dam queer thing - puts the wind up a bloke
Ta twig’ut a ded man’s skull lies inside uv his hed.
 
I discuvered that, han’some or ugly, when ya rot,
Whether yer a bishop, a prince or a knave,
The sorda hed I'm talken about’s worn by the lot.
 
So here, good n’ bad, bludgers an them’ut strive,
The learnèd, the donkeys, n’ mad folks ut rave,
Were all ded long before they was ever alive.
 
18/7/2000
The sonnet is translated into "Strine", the dialect spoken in Australia down to the 1960s.