Ngaba (5)

Here is the fifth installment of the Ngaba translation with accompanying vocabulary. Regarding the translation of the dialogue at the Chinese store, the original Myanmar text is written as though with a Chinese accent (rather than strictly according to correct spelling). As is evident, I have not replicated this in the English version. Also, the translated portion of the text ends at the red line at the bottom of the right column.

Vocabulary:

ဗျိုက် ။ a type of marshland shrub
သိုးမွေး ။ wool
နှင်နှင် ။ similarly
[အ]ပြောင် ။ bare
ဒေါမနဿ ။ disappointment
သဟဂုတ် ။ with
နာနာ ။ thoroughly
တုတ် ။ to eat
ပြောင်ပြောင်ရောင်ရောင် ။ (to be dressed) smartly
ကြီးပြင်း ။ to grow old, to come of age
နက်နဲ ။ profound
တွေးတော ။ to consider, brood upon
လူတစ်လု-သူတစ်လုံး ။ to be independent, “to stand on your own two feet”
အခွန် ။ tax
ကျေ ။ to be settled, fully paid
ထမ်းရွက် ။ to serve one’s duty, to carry on the shoulder
သန့်သန့် ။ cleanly, clearly
လယ်ကွက် ။ paddy plot enclosed by dykes
လောက်တော့ ။ no big deal
ရိုး ။ simple, plain
ပြည် ။ eight condensed milk tins make one 'ပြည်' of rice measured in a 'pyi-taung' basket
ပဲ ။ anna; sixteenth part of a rupee or four pice
ပြား ။ (currency introduced during British colonial days)
ကြဲ ။ to scatter, cast, drop
စနည်း to cry or saying occurring amongst the populace portending sth; auspicious or ominous saying
လင်္ကာ ။ a verse
ဒိုး ။ a small missile, usually a seabean seed or potsherd, used in a game of pitch
ထိုး ။ to play (chess or draughts)
ကိန်း ။ probability, number
ဇလုံ ။ bowl, basin
ပန်းကန် ။ cup; saucer; plate; dish; crockery
ပေါက်ဖေါ်။ an intimate and affectionate term conferred to the Chinese by the Myanmar people
ခွန်း ။ N. speech
စောက် ။ expletive connoting a vulgar reference to female genitalia

Translation:

During the cold season, a few sticks of fire wood from the shrub patch served as a woollen sweater for the children.

That state of affairs was not new.  In Ngaba’s time it came to be like that everyday.  And in Ngaba’s father’s time it was just like that.  And if [someone] was to walk down a great long line since the time of Ngaba’s father’s father’s father, it would be the same way.  If there was to be a donation, Ngaba’s grandfather, with a great Yaw sarong slung over [his] shoulder, his great back bare and a Japanese scarf standing up as a turban, [he] would stay in front of the house with disappointment, heartily eating tea and fried onions.  And Ngaba, having come to see [this] since [he] was young would look up to his grandfather [thinking] “Was his grandfather not a true great lord of luxury?”

[Ngaba] profoundly considered that being the sons and daughters of farmers, with Ngaba more than other people, it was especially the case that as much as [he] saw his grandfather and grandmother smartly dressed, now, at the time when he had grown old, in order to stand on his own two feet, he had to work hard just to live as his grandfather had.

The farm field out back was Ngaba’s world.  When Ngaba was quite young he heard his grandfather and grandmother say that the English had arrested the young Lord King Thebaw.  [They] had said “The year [Thebaw] went to India [He] heard them verbally note, “Our Burmese country is under the rule of the English [and] the English government’s king is in control.”  For him “English” was just a word.  He had not seen an English person even once.  Sometimes, he would think that just the police officer and the ten-house head who came and drank palm juice were the government.  Every time he paid his taxes he went to the village headman’s house.  [He] had heard the village headman proclaim the law to do one’s duty of fully paying [taxes] to every high government official.  Did the word “government” just mean “English”? Did it just mean the village headman?  What was it? Was it this, that or the other? Ngaba could not tell, [he] had not thought [of this] before.

However, in the year 1301 [1939] when there was a bumper crop in the paddy field and [the price of a basket] rose to over 1,000 [kyat], [he] heard clearly that the English government had started a war with the Germans.  The war was no big deal for Ngaba.  When he was young, just like this he heard that there was a war.  It had not yet arrived to U Thawpita’s monastery [and] while playing marbles below the monastery in the life of a monastery student he chanted the short verse “One byi of rice [for] three annas, Germany is dropping bombs!”  Since that time he knew the manner of how mighty the English were.  Therefore, although there was a war [it] was nothing special.  If [that] day arrived, Ngaba guessed for sure that the Germans would probably [face the situation of] one tin of rice [for] three annas.

Now the year 1303 [1941] had arrived.  [He] heard that the English and Japan would engage in war.  Ngaba new Japan well.  He had come to know about Japan ever since he had heard the Chinese at “Chinese ‘Tun Ah’ Grocery Store” [say] “That’s Japanese made,” when he had bought a Japanese crockery bowl.  He knew well that he could get Japanese made [items] cheaply.

While the Chinese at “Chinese ‘Tun Ah’ Grocery Store” were saying words like “Chiang Kai-Shek”, “Zhang Zuolin”, “Wang Jingwei” and the like, he [Ngaba] entered into the store.  “Please show me a crockery bowl,” he said.  The Chinese proclaimed there to be a boycott of Japanese goods.  [They] repeated said “The Japanese are useless c*nts!”