Banmaw Tin Aung (4)

This post contains the fourth page (p.64 in the volume I have) of the short story "Saw Khin and her livelihood" by Banmaw Tin Aung. A full version of this story in PDF format is available here.

Vocabulary:

လုံးလုံးလျားလျား ။ completely; without exception; without reservation
မှီခို ။ depend on someone; take refuge in; dependent
ဇွတ် ။ forcibly; obstinately, stubbornly, persistently
လက်ပြင် ။ scapular region; area covering the shoulder blade
တင်း ။ make taut; be tight
ကြွက်သား ။ muscle
ဖျစ်ညှစ် ။ squeeze
ဆေးလိပ်ခုံ ။ place where cigars or cheroots are rolled
ဇာဘော်လီ ။ lace bodice
ပီပီ ။ real
ခါးသီး ။ distasteful
ညည်းညူ ။ complain; grumble; grouse
သည်း thi: ။ be violent; be strong
လူတန်စေ့ ။

Translation:

For the two beings whose lives were dependent [on her] Saw Khin forcibly made herself conduct her livelihood work, even though she was disheartened in some manner.

Truely Saw Khin was not a women who did not want to work to the extent that the veins on her back became taut. She was a person who new and understood well work that squeezed her muscles to be able to live. Since before getting a husband she had rolled cigarettes at a cigarette rolling stall. She had sown lace braziers. Now, after her husband had abandoned her, before getting livelihood work she still sold stuff in the market. And in a lighter factory, she worked producing lighters for two and a half Kyat per day.

Saw Khin was a real child of poverty who knew and understood well how to work to the point of exhaustion in order to get adequate food, clothing and shelter. However exhausting the work she was able to work without complaining because Saw Khin was a person who distastefully had received that knowledge from life experiences since she was young.

In that, in the end now as for her livelihood that she had entered into doing with the life of a young woman abandoned by her husband, Saw Khin gradually became disheartened to the point that she was not able to endure strongly. Being free from that life...