Thein Pe Myint's "Oil" (4/13)

This post presents page 4 of 13 of Thein Pe Myint's 1938 short story "Oil". This copy has been downloaded from the "Burmese Classic" website, which has an excellent collection of Myanmar books in PDF format.

Vocabulary:

နေ့တွက် ။ wages for the day
စီကာပတ်ကုံး ။ (speak or write) elaborately and eloquently in an organized way
ကန့်ကွက် ။ to object, protest
ဖီလာ ။ cross-wise, obstructively, contrarily to
ကန့်လန့် ။ contrarily
ညား ။ to become man and wife
ရယ်မေ ။ laugh heartily
ပျော်ပါး ။ enjoy; have a good time, indulge in sensual pleasures
တောင်းပန် ။ apologise, request, implore, beseech to do sth
ကြံ ။ think, scheme; plot
ပျင်း ။ feel lazy; be lazy; feel bored; be bored, lazy
ပဲ့ ။ stern or tail part of a boat or plane, helm​, steer (a boat or plane).
စို့ ။ postpositional marker following a verb indicating a proposal to do sth together (equivalent in usage to the imperative ' let's)
ဗျို့ ။ form of response used by men

Translation:

"In the past, oil could be had for free. Now, it can't. Since [today] is the day of settling accounts, it of course must be bought."

"It can't be bought, credit will have to be given. Rice must be bought. A shirt must be bought for Mya Nyunt. The days' wages aren't even sufficient."

When Ma Sint had elaborately objected, Ko Lu Dote let out a deep exhale.

Kyaw Yin thought from different angles [lit. in a south and north way] about the contrariness between what his father said and what his teacher had taught.

"Father, are you lying?"

"I'm not lying. We don't have a Myanmar king. The king to whom you are making obeisances is not our king. I will have you read about the true kings."

"It's difficult having no oil, father."

There being five families residing in the row in which they lived, in the room abutting to the south of their [room], a couple who had just married were living. Since getting married, they did not dare to laughingly indulge in sensual pleasure. They were embarrassed that [the sound] would be heard from the room. "Everything will be heard from that side, [so] speak quietly," the wife implored.

"I will think of a way to get oil. Don't be lazy, my son. Read." [These] words of Ko Lu Dote in the southern room set [his son] on course again.

Hearing the wife's answer, "Well, let's go to sleep," the husband let out a sign with a 'Hee' sound and became anxious.

"Ko Lu Dote."