165 The creation a the wirld (La creazzione der Monno)
Translated by Peter Nicholas Dale

The year Jesus Christ kneaded the wirld in’u’a globe,
(‘Cos the dough f’rit was alreddy easily found)
He wannèd ta make it green, as large an as round
As them sample melons grocers let custamers probe.
 
He made a map a the wirld, a moon, ana sun,
But when it came ta stars, he made piles a the stuff:
Birds uptop, beasts midway an fish in the deepest run:
He planted plants n’ then sed aftawoods: “That’s anuf.”
 
Oh, I fagot ta tellyez’t God then created man,
An alongside a man a woman, Adam an Eve:
An aprapo eaten an apple, he set a strict ban.
 
But as soon as he saw’rem scarfen the apple, he clucked,
N then screamed with as much voice as only God cud heave:
“Men a the future, from here on in yer all fucked.”
 
28/2/2000
The sonnet is translated into "Strine", the dialect spoken in Australia down to the 1960s.