886 The truth  (La Verità)
Translated by Peter Nicholas Dale
 
The Truth's jus’ like a run a the Tom Tits,
Ut, when ya feel the urge an id all starts slippen,
Ya got’cha wirk cud out squeezen back the shits,
As ya grimace an strain t’ hold it from drippen.
 
It's just like that, if ya gob ain' plugged real tite,
The truth, ut’s a sacrasanct an a slippery thing,
Spills out, but frum ya mouth n’ not frum ya ring,
Even if ya was a Trappist with a vow da be quiet.
 
Why shudja shud up, then, after all, or tell a lie,
Whenever inside a ya, the truth's wot’cha feel?
Nah! In its own time n’ place the truth'ull let fly.
 
The Almighdy wants our mouths ta be sincere,
An yet men wanna paste’em over with a seal?
Nah! Stick ta the truth, ‘n dudy, always, ‘n ya got nuthen’a fear!
 
23/9/2000
The sonnet is translated into "Strine", the dialect spoken in Australia down to the 1960s.