Big Bridge #9

Poets of Australia

 

Ouyang Yu

Advance Australia Unfair

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are not young and nothing’s free;
We've golden guns and petrol boats for real,
Our home is guarded by sea;
Our land abounds in Nature's gifts
Taken of a people poor and rare;
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia unfair!
In joyful constraints then let us sin,
"Advance Australia unfair!"

When gallant people from Afghan sail'd,
To trace wide oceans o'er,
True Afghan courage bore them on,
Till they landed on our shore.
Then here they raised New Migrant's flag,
The standard of the brave;
With all their merits we hate them still,
"Terra Australia rules the wave!"
In joyful constraints then let us sin,
"Advance Australia unfair!"

Beneath our radiant southern Cross,
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Reject all the other lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've got nothing to share;
With courage let us all combine
Foreigners to expel and repel.
In joyful constraints then let us sin,
"Advance Australia unfair!"

While other nations of the globe
Covet us from afar,
We'll rise to high defence and shine
Like our glorious suburb spar;
From Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra,
Who come our lot to repatriate,
Let all combine with heart and hand
To advance Australia unfair!
In joyful constraints then let us sin,
"Advance Australia unfair!"

Shou'd foreign boat e'er sight our coast,
Or dare a foot to land,
We'll rouse to arms like sires of yore
To guard our native strand;
Kiribili House then shall surely know,
Beyond wide ocean's roll,
Its sons in unfair Australia's land
Still keep a white soul.
In joyful constraints then let us sin,
"Advance Australia unfair!"


(Arranged on Australia Day 2002)



Cash or Cunt

This country doesn’t like Asians

Except their

Cash

or

Cunt



The Story of Ned Kelly

Ned Kelly is a bloke who lives next door to us
He drinks bee(r)
Has kids + a wife
And affairs
One day he gets upset
And hits her
She yells so the whole neighborhood hears
Someone calls the police
You know what it is like
Just like it’s shown on TV
He refuses to open the door
The police surround the house
Armed to their arses
A number of results could ensue:
1.   he’s overpowered with sprayed capsicum
2.   he surrenders eventually from anywhere between 1 to 10-odd hours
3.   he chooses to die by his own hand but most likely he won’t
The Ned Kelly who lives next door
Had an intervention order placed against him
That does not permit him to come within 200 meters of her among other things
Which cancels out any possibility of making up
And leads to the issue of property settlement
Ned Kelly is famous & generous
He gets written into fiction
And wins someone else a major English prize

Ned Kelly is the bloke
Who lives
Next door
To you



Ouyang Yu graduated from La Trobe University with a doctoral degree in Australian literature and has had 26 Chinese and English books published in the field of fiction, poetry, literary translation and literary criticism, including his first novel in English, The Eastern Slope Chronicle (Brandl & Schlesinger 2003, Sydney, short-listed for the 2003 NSW Premier’s Awards); his fifth book of English poetry, Foreign Matter (Otherland Publishing 2003, Melbourne), which won the 2003 Fast Books Prize for Best Poetry in the self-published category in NSW, Australia; and his thirteenth book of translation, in Chinese, of Robert Hughes' The Shock of the New (Baihua Publishing House 2003, China). His sixth book of English poetry, New and Selected Poems of Ouyang Yu, is forthcoming with Salt Publishing (2003, UK); his third book of Chinese poetry, wo cao (Fuck), hand-made, has just been published in 2003 in Melbourne, Australia; and his fourth book of Chinese poetry, xiandu (The limit), is forthcoming in late 2003 in Beijing.

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