Ngaba (6)

This post contains the final section of Ngaba, chapter 1.  As in the previous section, the dialogue by the Chinese men at the store is written in Myanmar script as though with a Chinese accent.  I have not reproduced that device in the English version.  The text (p. 8) begins with the latter half of a sentence that began at the end of page 7 (see Ngaba (5)).

Translation:

From amongst the group of Chinese men, the Chinese community leader Tun Ah who owned the store clearly explained that “[We] previously accepted [those] beautiful bowls, [but] after they have quickly sold out, [we] will not buy them again anymore. Therefore, now [we] only have plates coming.” And so Ngaba bought three crockery bowls [and] five plates [for a cost of] one kyat, three 8ths [of a kyat and] 1 anna. At that time when he bought [the Japanese crockery] at the cheapest price [he] was very pleased and comforted. The Japanese who managed and produced [the goods] so that crockery bowls could be gotten cheaply had now declared war on the English. He knew that news before the people in the field knew. Ngaba was an ignorant farmer. However, he was not naïve. He was capable of immediately comprehending. Was he not the first to have and know that general knowledge? And he informed his friends in advance of all that he knew and [they] came to realize [about the war].

During that time that the Lord of Knowledge Ngaba was informing his friends about the news of war, the noble Japanese friends were arriving in Mawlamyine. It was a time full of glory and auspiciousness, as the chests of our Burmese Lord Masters [Thakins] who were relieving [their] great exhaustion [from] daring to help [the Japanese], with gifts of bananas, were overloaded with applause.