Ngaba (11)

This translation of Maung Htin's Ngaba covers the text on page 12 (as shown in the scanned image below) starting from the first full paragraph at the top of the left hand column (which opens with the word "ဖြုတ်ကနဲဆို") and continues to the last sentence at the bottom of the right hand column.

Vocabulary:

ကနဲဲ ။ S-ကနဲ = with a sudden "S" sound
သုတ် ။ to jerk
တင် ။ to elevate
က ။ a fish
ဖြုတ် ။ to take off, unhook
ပလိုင်း ။ cane or bamboo basket with sling
ရွေ့ ။ to move, be displaced
ဒိုး ။ small missile, usually a seabean seed or potsherd, used in a game of pitch
နှင် ။ to drive out
သက်သံ ။ checked tone
မှီ ။ lean against
မည်း ။ black, dark
ပွား ။ grow or increase in number; proliferate; replicate; duplicate
ဇိမ် ။ sth enjoyable; luxury
တာ ။ embankment
တမံ ။ dyke (dike); small dam
လက်ဝါး ။ palm (of the hand)
မုန်းတီး ။ to hate intensely
ကြီးပွား ။ to prosper
အားကျ ။ to emulate
ယှဉ်ပြိုင် ။ to compete, contest
ရုန်း ။ (of draught animals) pull; struggle.
အကြွေးဆပ် ။ repay sth owed, sth outstanding, debt
မှောင် ။ dark
ကြမ်းပြင် ။ open extension of the floor of a house
ဝင်စွက် ။ to interfere, meddle
တွေဝေ ။ be in a daze or stuporး be indecisive; waver; vacillate

Translation:

With a sudden 'pyote' sound Ngaba jerked up the fishing rod. A fish writhed and became hooked on the fishing rod.

Ngaba unhooked the fish and dropped it in the bamboo basket.

At that time, the children in front of the hut, while saying "I think Hawmi is finished," smiled and came to the stream from behind the hut.

"Don't worry wife. While I am good I will not move my head. As for Haury, we're work companions who stick together. As much as I can protect him, I will protect him."

When this talk had finished, he heard the two rounds of "elder brother!" from the front of the hut.

That sound was Haury's sound.

As whenever there was talk about him, he arrived. [Ngaba] wondered what serious matter [Haury] had and Ngaba's head because very tired.

"Haury! What is it, mate?"

"Elder brother, are you there? Now I have heard news. [Those in] the field say that the Indians are to be driven out to India. And they can't get their money, elder brother. I'm really freightened. I think there will be difficulty."

"We are here, mate," Ngaba said to his fellow worker in a compassionate voice.

It was true. It was compassionate. Haury depended on the paddy field and was a person who looked for subsistence rations. And Ngaba was the same as that.

When he spoke as a fellow worker, be they white, black, brown, yellow, Ngaba did not care. It was not important that Indians sent money to India. And that the Chinese prospered and enjoyed luxury. Ngaba was of the opinion that to each person, the reward of his merit.

Haury was here and took care of the small dyke. He took care of the small dyke and the rice harvest was good.

At the entrance of the water ditch there was a general commodity store and you could but chillie, garlic and onion. You could cook the little fisk that you caught and eat it with flavour. Whoever ruled with great hand, the situation of us farmers would be in accordance with that. Ngaba understood as much as that. For Ngaba, the men and women of the world were not able to give birth to hearts which intensly hated each other. He could not emulate the prosperity of the Chinese and Indians, he did not have the kind of pride to work in competition. What he understood was giving rice and borrowing money, and after having pulled like a buffalo and a cow in the paddy field, wieghing the harvested rice and repaying his debts.

"I have come and lived with elder brother for twenty-five years in total. Sometimes, I went to Bengal, didn't I. I kepts items with elder brother. And now I have followed [to] entrust to elder brother."

"Yes, yes. What do you want to leave. Will you return to Bengal?"

"Ah... how would I return to Bengal elder brother? The delivery people are scared. Therefore, I want to entrust property to elder brother. I will take my heavy box when it's dark. I have 125 of money. I still have the profit from the money that I lent out. Those [I want to entrust] with elder brother."

While placing the child from her hip to the floor of the porch Mi Paw said, "Could you keep them with U Tha Gaung, Haury?" She spoke setting her face as a startled crow eating food.

Interupting, Ngaba said "Okay, the items that come to brother." After Mi Paw wavered, she relaxed.

When it was like that, at a time when it was a little suitablely dark Haury brought his box to Ngaba.