Ngaba (19)

This translation of Maung Htin's Ngaba covers the text on page 21, as shown in the scanned image below.

Vocabulary:

စာရေး ။ clerk, to write
ရာထူး ။ official position or appointment; designation
ကြဉ် ။ to avoid; shun; excommunicate
ဓားမ ။ chopper; knife with a broad blade
ဘုရားစူး ။ to suffer retribution for going back on one's vows to the Buddha.
နို့ ။ "if it were so" (conj.)
ဒေသနာ ။ teachings of the Buddha
လုံး ။ to be intimate with
အကင်းပါး ။ to be shrewed, astute
သံပုံး ။ tin, bucket, pail
ဝါးရင်းတုတ် ။ staff made of hard and solid kind of bamboo
စေကာမူ ။ however; nevertheless; not withstanding; even if
လာဘ်မြင် ။ to be farsighted, have acumen
ချောင် ။ have an easy time; be in comfortable circumstances; get sth for a bargain
စွန့်စား ။ take a risk; venture
ထေ ။ recover one's loss; recoup
စားပေါက် ။ an opportunity for personal gain
အပိုင်စီး ။ usurp; take possession of sth forcibly; misappropriate
အဝဝ ။
ဖိဖိစီးစီး ။ effectively; thoroughly
မီးသီး ။ an electric bulb, ball of fire
အဖော်ညှိ ။ ask someone to join in an undertaking
ညံ့စာစာ ။
ငိုကြွေး ။ to weep, bewail
နှင် ။ drive out/ away someone; expel; banish
မျက်စပစ် ။ make a gesture by raising an eyebrow or eyebrows
သွေးဆုတ် ။ to turn pale; blanch.
သိပ် ။ to put to sleep, to aleviate
ညည်းတွား ။ to grumble, moan
ခေါင်းချင်းရိုက် ။ to go into a huddle
သွေးချင်းသားချင်း ။ people of the same race; fellow countrymen

Translation:

When Phyo Dote had been appointed as a taxation clerk, he had been calm.

As for now, Phyo Dote could not calm down. Really, if an issue arrose [Phyo Dote] would have to rely on the Nationalist Party. Therefore, he avoided the 21 Person [Party] and got close with the Nationalist Party. While doing that, because the Butcher's Knife Party became popular he had to join with the Butcher's Knife [Party] like a fish with water. As for Phyo Dote, he had to protect his loyalty to the Nationalist [Party]. May he suffer retribution for having reneged on his vows to the Buddha. Hey... if it were so, but politics is not [လှေနံဓားထစ်]. "Kalante, Dethante, Aggante." Were these not the teachings that the Buddha preached? Although he was close with the Poor People's Party, Phyo Dote had the respect of the Nationalist [Party]. He was politically shrewed. As for the Nationalist [Party] leaders, they had education. They understood.

Since the Thakins had been striking a metal pail, Phyo Dote, like a Garuda General, had helped out with a wooden stick. In doing that, because of the wooden stick no conflict had arised with the Thakins. In the great armed forces of the wooden sticks, although Phyo Dote was in a contrary position, the "We Burmese" Thakins understood.

In politics, Phyo Dote came to be farsighted and at the time when parties collected their forces and were being good, due to him sitting astride two sides and eating pleasantly, it could be said that he was in comfortable circumstances.

However, although Phyo Dote had taken a risk in politics and made a sacrifice, he had still not recouped his losses. In politics, when one issue remained unresolved [a person] had to reach out and consider the next issue. When it was once again that the issue had still not opened up as an opportunity for personal gain, [a person] had to be patient. Oh... in that way, while being patient, for as much as one had to make political sacrifices, was he not now expropriating a box of firewood?

As much as that, Phyo Dote who had to carry a great and heavy responsibility for politics thouroughly did all the issues of work that he had to do and at the same time he left from Ngaba's field.

Phya Dote, upon calling Haury away after an incident of a first knife cutting let him go free half way on the road. Haury, although he was able to get free again he entered Ngaba's hut. Poor him, he was bent over at the waist. When he had entered into the hut Haury saw Tha Ee, Myat Hmwe and Mi Paw rubbing a very long knife cut on the outside of Ngaba's back with oil from an oil lamp and fire and they were gathering as the first [aid] nurses of a rural farmer's life.

And Haury made a sound of 'hee hee' and cried. Mi Paw who was joining in and crying and while calling out "Haury, at once we now have difficulties, mate," Mi Nee with her three younger brothers also weeped.

After that Tha Ee reached out to put medicine on Haury's forehead. Haury said, "[My] forehead is not an issue, [my] back ... [???]." Therefore, Tha Ee reached out to [Haury's] back.

Tha Ee distorted his face. Mi Paw came close [and said] "You, don't come, look after the children. Don't let them cry." And she drove them away. [She] made an eye signal to Myat Hmwe and called her. And when Myat Hmwe saw the cut [her] face turned pale. However, so that Haury would not be worried the two of them remained as though it was not a big issue and moisted the wound with oil and wrapped it with a cloth. When they were finished they made Haury lie down and go to sleep at the head of the hut. As for Haury while he moaned he dozed off. At that time Ngaba​​, Tha Ee and Myat Hmwe huddled together.

In Ngaba's mind while thinking that his pleasant little home was now the same as an unpleasent home, he was disheartened.

At a time like that the We Burmese who were Ngaba's fellow countrymen...