Thein Pe Myint's "Oil" (3/13)

This post presents page 3 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:

အလွဲ ။ wrong; blunder; bungle; discrepancy
ချည်း ။ particle conveying the sense of exclusiveness (comparable in usage to adverbs "only", "alone", "just")
ဘိလပ် ။ Britain
ဝီခေါ် ။ to be excessive, to be exceeding
ကျက် ။ to memorise; learn by heart; learn by rote
လက်ဖဝါး ။ palm
သပ် ။ to stroke
နားစွင့် ။ to strain one's ear
ညည်း ။ to complain; grumble; grouse
စောင်း ။ slant; slope; lean; tilt; be askew
ဇွတ်မှိတ် ။ to persist in spite of knowing that one is in error

Translation:

"In what you say, who is 'our king' ? We don't have a king, Kyaw. Our king left a long time ago."

"Father, you're just wrong. It's said that he comes from far away, from Britain. He lives there."

"Who taught you that?"

"The teacher."

"It's wrong."

"It's not wrong."

"It's extremely wrong. I have a book. Read it. Set it down [in your mind]. Have you not been singing your hymns long?"

"It's only this year that we have praised the king, father."

"Those songs. Can you not [sing] Awgathas and Eitipithaws [Pali chants]?"

"I can't," he said and kicked his foot against the wall.

"If you can't, then you'll have to memorise them. You're only a person when you can say obeisances to the Buddha," Ko Lu Dote said and covered his son's forehead with his hand and stroked his head.

Kyaw Yin listened and concentrated like a person who strains his ears to hear the sounds of spoons and plates in the rice eating area and asked, "I'll memorise using that [book]. Where's the book?"

"Light a lamp on mother's shelf."

"There's no oil," complained Ma Sint.

"Elder sister, fill the oil."

"We have to buy [some more oil]. It's not free. Well, well​​​​​​, ​​go to sleep. There's no [oil]," Ma Sint said and leaned to one side and stubbornly closed her eyes.