Thein Pe Myint's "Oil" (8/13)

This post presents page 8 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:

ပျဉ် ။ flat plank,sheet
ညှိ ။ to ignite, light (a fire, cigarette, etc.)
ဆန့် ။ to stretch out, straighten, extend
ဖွာ ။ to puff (as in smoking)
ဟိုဒင်း ။ that, that thing
သမင်လည်ပြန်ကြည့် ။ to look back over one's shoulder
စိတ်ပါလက်ပါ ။ willingly
ဖြစ်မှဖြစ်ရ ။ 'what shouldn't have happened, happened.'
အက် ။ (of sound or voice) cracked
ပဒေသာ ။ variety
မြိုင် ။ rich in variety
မဲ့ ။ to grimace; make a wry face
မှန်းထား ။ to earmark
ယောင် ။ to speak or act absent-mindedly; speak or act in mimicry reflex
ခေါင်းခါ ။ to shake one's head
ရွံ ။ detest; abhor; loathe
ယုတ်မာ ။ mean; base; despicable
ဟောဒီ ။ this

Translation:

In the southern side [of the room] where there was a flat thanaka stone, Ma Sint was placing cigarettes on the stone.

Ma Sint took a cigarette and lit it.

She curled her left leg and while stretching out her right leg was puffing the cigarette.

"Ko Lu Dote, did you hear about that thing?"

"What thing?" Ko Lu Dote asked while looking back over his shoulder.

"U Mone who guards the shop storage shed has been punished."

As Ma Sint was explaining, Ko Lu Dote became more engaged and asking back, Ma Sint added in response "A bottle of oil disappeared from the storage shed."

"Oh, it shouldn't have been like this," Ko Lu Dote complained with a cracking voice.

He gazed towards the oil [that was fueling] the abundant lamp light, which was rich in variety like variety [?]. He happened to see a single flame of the lamp expand into two flames. He could not think. Without intending to, he envisaged the face of U Mone Kyi grimacing [in suffering]. The image of U Mone's face and of him putting the bottle of oil onto the car emerged in his [mind's] eyes. His chest was beating with a 'dait-dait' sound.

"Here, [take] a cigarette," [said] Ma Sint reaching out and while giving a cigarette, Ko Lu Dote shook his head and showed [his face to Ma Sint].

"I stole [it], I stole [it]. Because I stole [it] Ko Mone has been punished," Ko Lu Dote [said] and he understood and came to hate himself. He came to detest himself.

"Because I'm despicable, just one of the two of us has gotten in trouble. Ko Mone, you don't know. It is I [who is responsible for] you being persecuted. This... "