Thein Pe Myint's "Oil" (5/13)

This post presents page 5 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:

ညဉ့်နက် ။ to be late in the night
အလိုက်သိ ။ to be aware of other's wishes or existing circumstances
တိတ် ။ to be silent; be quiet
ခေါင်းရင်း ။ place in the direction of one's head when sleeping​, part of the house (in a Buddhist home) where the altar is
ဆန့် ။ stretch out; straighten out; extend
ဆိတ် ။ to be quiet, still, silent
ဖောက်ထွင်း ။ make a hole; perforate,​ pass through
ဟိန်း ။ (of tigers, leopards, etc) roar; (of animals) growl; boom or reverberate
ကြွေး ။ debt
ဝဋ် ။ cyclic process impelled by the interaction of lust, deeds and consequences; retribution; evil consequence of evil deeds
ကျွတ် ။ free (from all restrictions); be unfettered; be untrammelled
ညည်းညူ ။ to complain
ကျယ်လောင် ။ very loud
အစပျောက် ။ disappear or vanish completely; losetrack
ခဲယဉ်း ။ difficult
အကွက် ။ opportunity

Translation:

"What is it still?"

"About what time is it? I think it's quite late, isn't it?"

"Yep," answered Ko Lu Dote in accordance [with his wife's question], and they stayed quietly.

As for Ko Lu Dote, he couldn't sleep. He happened to think about his younger son. "My son is studying things that are not true. Even at this age, he's not able to recite obeisances to the Buddha. It'll be good if he reads [the Buddhist chants]. The fact that he has to read [in school] things that are incorrect and not good is a real problem," he thought and stretched his two hands out towards the alter. Engine sounds roared and passed through the silent and peaceful little village.

"I can't buy oil for my son to read with. As for us, we're unfortunate. And doing only this much work, [I'll] never get out of debt. When will I be free from this cycle of retribution for past bad deeds?" While complaining [in this way], a laughing sound 'kit' like a little lizard sucking very loudly emerged from the room to the south, resulting in the grain of sand in Ko Lu Dote's thoughts to be lost.

Propping up his knee and putting his hand on his forehead he returned to thinking. While thinking "What will I have to do to get oil for my son? Yeah, it's like my head is below sea water," he came to see [in his thoughts] bottles of oil placed in the BOC [Burmah Oil Company] Company store. He often arrived at the BOC store with a lorry. It would not be very difficult for him to stop the lorry in front of the storage building and enter alone. Since the guard believed him, while unloading goods from the lorry they [the guard(s)] would divert their faces. He thought. That would be a good opportunity.