Ngaba (18)

This translation of Maung Htin's Ngaba covers the text on page 20, as shown in the scanned image below.

Vocabulary:

အသိမ်း ။ keep
ရှ ။ to cut superficially, abrade
အောင်း ။ to be cooped up, hide
တမတ်ဖိုး ။ the value of 25 cents
တပည့်တပန်း ။ pupil; disciple; follower; servant
ချဉ်းကပ် ။ to approach, come near
ဣန္ဒြေ ။ guarded or controlled speech or action​​; composure; modesty
ဆယ် ။ to save, rescue, salvage
မွှေ ။ to rummage
ကြိမ်း ။ to proclaim, scold, threaten
အဆောင်အဖြစ် ။ insignia
ဝါးရုံ ။ bamboo grove
ဝါးလုံး ။ bamboo pole
ထူ ။ to erect
အရေးတော်ပုံ ။ a historical account of a royal campaign; social or political uprising, revolution
သံတိုင် ။ the lead lines to which a chorus responds
အခမ်းအနား ။ ceremony
သိမ်းဆည်း ။ to put away, pack up, put in safe keeping
အနစ်နာခံ ။ to make a sacrifice
မြောက် ။ to be tossed up, reach the apex, be consummated
အာပေါင်အာရင်း ။ with energy
ဝံသာနု ။ a nationalist
အားကိုး ။ to rely, depend
အဖတ်တင် ။ to have something to show for one's efforts
လိမ့် ။ to loose heavily
ဆက်ကြေး ။ tribute; protection money; extortion money
ပေါက်စ ။ fledgeling; young thing; tiny thing
ဆေးဖော်ကြောဖက် မလုပ် ။ to ignore someone,
တြင်းကြေ [also spelled တြင်းကျေ ] ။ end of all evil events
အုပ်စား ။ to acquire, gain in secret
မသကာ ။ at the most; at the worst; if the worst comes to the worst

Translation:

Therefore, when he had struck and was putting away the knife [Phyo Dote] sliced with the tip of the knife on Ngaba's back and a flower of blood sprayed out.

Mi Paw shuddered with fright and when she saw the form that was Ngaba from the room in which she was hiding, while crying out "Mother, is it neither good to see nor good to breath?" she ran to where Ngaba was. Even though Phyo Dote was worth just 25 cents he had become a Thakin. He had only 25 cents worth of courage. Therefore, with just as much of the little courage that he had, he was startled and had a plan the run and recoil in fear. Because his followers were blocking so that he could not leave and because Mi Paw approached to where her husband was Phyo Dote's composure was rescued and he got it back.

When Hoary saw the form of Ngaba he said, "Elder brother you are suffering for me, aren't you. It's not good. Give [the box to them] elder brother."

And Ngaba said in a shout, "Go yourselves and look for what it is that you want."

Phyo Dote and his followers entered into the hut and while rummaging in the back easily got Haury's box from Ngaba's paddy storage basket below the bedroom.

Phyo Dote scolded Ngaba, [saying] "Ruined like a son of a bitch, did you consider [Haury] to be your mother's husband and respectfully store the Indian's items?" Phto Dote had his disciples pull out the the cord tying Ngaba's hands. Because Tha Ee and Myat Hmwe cried and apologized, [saying] "Thakin Phyo Dote we Burmans don't treat each other well," Thakin Phyo Dote allowed them to be freed.

However, as for Haury they pulled out the cord tying his hands and took him away to his hut. On the prepared paddy threshing ground in front of Haury's hut there was a pile of about 100 [sacks] of paddy that Haury had collected and set out. Phyo Dote's disciples gathered together and took out a big flag with three rays of light which they took to be their insignia and cut a bamboo pole from a bamboo grove and took it out and when they had attached the flag they erected it upon the mound of paddy.

One person lead the chorus [with the words] "Revolution!"

Others followed saying "It's been victorious!"

As for this ceremony it was a ceremony of Thakin Phyo Dote expropriating Haury's paddy which was the enemy's property.

As much as Thakin Phyo Dote came to do politics, he was just making a sacrifice for the country. Immediately upon the people reaching the apex, because there were those without work they encountered with the era of the GCBA and entered the area of politics. In that era, according to the political programme [a person] would strongly swear at the government with all one's energy. It was almost as if, due to having sworn well, with the destruction of reverence for the government [a person] would be arrested. After joining with the police, [one] would just give news to the police and would became wealthy. If one depended only on a nationalist, [that person] would be imprisoned and left with only a great lose of anything to show for [one's] efforts. If [a person] did not have regular work, [he] would happen to enter into politics. Due to having entered into politics [a person] would have to be without manual work. Without extortion money how would the GCBA have enough to eat? In that way although Phyo Dote had had to make a sacrifice, U Chit Hlaing Kyi became president and turned his back on the fledgling politician Phyo Dote. Therefore, at the age of 21 due to the emergence of the 21 Person Party, in order to put an end to all evil events he entered the 21 Person Party. At that time he fell back and due to the 21 Person Party he was sworn at. He had no opportunities open at all. If it was just extortion money, he could not arrive at the status that would allow him to acquire secret wealth that was truly great. As much as he had sacrificed, it was worthless. When U Ba Pe's clique became ministers, they forgot and discarded Phyo Dote. At most he would be the Minister of Forestry.