Dagon Taya (9)

This post covers page nine of Dagon Taya's short story "A fragrant hazy night" (မွှေးမြရီဝေသောညတစ်ည). The translation begins from the first full sentence at the top of the page and continues to the last sentences at the bottom of the page.

Vocabulary:

ဟား ။ to jeer
ရယ်မော ။ to laugh heartily
လျ ။ slight; slender; trim; lean; thin; attenuated
မျက် ။ a knot of wood [?]
ညက်ညော ။ to be smooth
မွှေးထုံ ။ enduringly fragrant
ရပ်တန့် ။ to stop
လုံမ ။ an affectionate term for a girl
ကြော့ ။ smart [appearance]
ရင့် ။ deep, dark [colour]; mature
တင်း ။ tight
ကျောပေး ။ to turn one’s back, ignore
ညင်သာ ။ to be smooth, gentle; (of speech and manners) to be polite
ကိုယ်စား ။ on behalf of
ရမ္မက် ။ lust, desire
တိမ်လွှာ ။ stratus
ပကတိ ။ original, natural, normal, or unaffected state
အထိမ်းအမှတ် ။ sign, symbol
တည့် ။ straight

Translation:

While the aura of the moon was looking at me jeeringly it was laughing heartily. And I jeered back at it and laughed heartily.

As I was out of breath, I went to where there was a knot of wood spread out under a tree. The knot of wood that was spread out ran out to me. As it made contact with me it was smooth and enduringly fragrant. Who was it?

“Don’t you see a person?”

“Oh mother!”

As I was shocked in surprise I cried out and stopped. While the silver colour of the moon was gazing at Inya lake, it was a tender young girl. With her hair styled in a pony tail she looked smart. Going around in one circle, she was embraced in red and wore a small dark blue shirt on her chest. Her deep blue skirt that was speckled with red spots was a little tight. In the light of the moon her little face had a tender smile. From her body a fragrance was permeating.

As soon as I turned my back on the light of the moon…

“[It is] because it [the light] is insufficient. And I thought that no one was here. I am sorry.” I said in a most polite voice.

As I was talking I was gazing at her. She was acting on behalf of the night’s deep blue sky. While being red, she acted on behalf of the aura of the moon’s power of desire. While the aura of the moon was removing the stratus clouds, it radiated with its original state of being. She was acting as a symbol of the beauty and fragrance of the night and the desire of the moon’s aura.

As I turned my back on the moon’s light, I stood straightly with the light of the moon.

While the tender young girl was gazing at me, with the sound of laughter [she said]…

“U Htin Sha? The writer U Htin Shaw?”