The Cycle (1/2)

The present post presents page 1 of 2 of Ma Sanda's short piece "The Cycle". A short summary of Ma Sanda's life and works is available here.

Vocabulary:

စက်ဝိုင် ။ cycle
သား ။ numerical classifier used in counting the number of ticals or fractions of a tical or viss
ပြည် ။ pyi = 2 kg.
ပိဿာ ။ viss = 16.3 kg
အခြမ်း ။ half, segment
ကိုက် ။ agree; equal ; correspond
လုယက် ။ take by force, rob, usurp, snatch

Translation:

"A tenth of a viss of boiled chick peas are one and a half kyat."

"I heard you sister."

"In the past they were half a kyat."

"Don't come and talk about the old price, sister. What we have to buy is not at the old price. I have to pay 22 kyat for one pyi. If it's boiled, I only
get two and a half viss.

* * *

"The body is four kyat. A half is four and a half kyat."

"The price of chicken has gone up. One viss is 40, 45 kyat. My husband is great writer who gets only enough wages the month for about 5 viss of chicken."

"If I don't sell it for this much, I won't break even sister. We can only if for a price of 38 kyat."

* * *

"One tenth of a viss is one and a half kyat, little sister. If you take a quarter of a viss, you can take it for three and a half kyat. These are In eggplants. They have a lot of flesh. They're very sweet."

"And the tomatoes have until now not been plentiful. Always at this time they're quite plentiful."

"Oh... what we are getting [now] is not like you always, my little sister. The present price is 130 kyat for one box. Even at that [price] we have to snatch them up with considerable effort."

* * *

Aunt​, I've taken a pile of this fresh chilli, you know. I'll pay the money. Sorry, sorry.