Thein Pe Myint (5)

The following text and translation covers the page 5 of Thein Pe Myint's short story "ငွေစိန် လှေလှော်ရင်း တက်ကျိုးခြင်း", which I have scanned from page 333 of "ဝတ္ထုတိုပေါင်းချုပ်သစ်" [A new collection of short stories].

Vocabulary:

နှင်းဆီပန်း ။ a rose
အနုပ်စုတ်ကုပ်စုတ် ။ a person down at heels; down-and-out
တောက်ပြောင် ။ adj bright; brilliant; shining; vivid; luminous; lustrous
ဝင်း ။ bright
လက် ။ flash; glitter; scintillate; coruscate
လေသံ ။ whisper
ပြတ်ပြတ် ။ decisively; bluntly; without mincing one's words
ဝန်လေး ။ to be burdensome, irksome
ယှဉ် ။ to be side by side, compete
တွက် ။ to consider; reckon
ကူးစက် ။ to spread
အချက် ။ indication; sign; signal
သိမ်း ။ a falcon
ပြေးလွှား ။ run in haste; scramble; scamper; scurry
ပုန်းကွယ် ။ to hide
ကနား ။ pavilion
ကွယ် ။ to hide
ဝှက် ။ to hide

Translation:

As it is said "By whatever name you call a rose, it's true that that its scent is beautiful," [so too] whichever logo is affixed to the shoes that I sell, they are only good."

I happened to smile. I never thought that I would hear as brilliant words as these from a down-and-out market seller on the road in this way.

"What you say is right. However, if we look from the direction of those market buyers a logo is important. They don't have the ability to easily know whether the quality is good or not. Therefore, [people] will select a logo only when when a reputation is obtained, only when many people like [the product]."

As he was worriedly looking to the front, he bluntly whispered "If you want a well known logo, go to the big stores. You can't get them from me. If you want these, take them for 4 kyat and go."

As those shoes were with a form, heel and string that I liked I was not burdened to give the four kyat that he had asked for. Other than that, I reckoned that the price which competed with the equal kind from the other store was sweet [low].

Therefore, while I was about to make the purchase, something suddenly occurred with the whole row of market stalls. The sudden occurrence was that starting from the direction of Mago Road (Shwe Bontha Road) [the market stalls] quickly spread to the direction of Thein Gyi Market.

"Coming!"

"Coming!"

"Pack up! Pack up!"

As they gave a signal and shouted out, immediately like little chicks scrambling to hide as a falcon swooped down putting the trays on their heads, taking down the tables the collection of market sellers packed up their market stalls. After packing up, they ran and hid the little market stalls between the buildings behind a big shop [and] a big pavilion where they could not be seen.

At that time, I was more pleased with the shoes.

"Okay, with the price that you ask I will take [the shoes]."

"Take them. Take them."