Tree planters (3/12)

This post presents page 3 of 12 of Ma Sanda's short story "The tree planters" from her book Ban-pwint-khayay [Blossoming star flower].

Vocabulary:

အရေခွံ ။ skin
တွန့် ။ to wrinkle
တုန်ခါ ။ vibrate; tremble; shake; quake; quiver; quaver; shudder
တွေ ။ waver, be stunned, be dazed
ဇရာ ။ old age; decrepitude; decay
ဆင်ခြင် ။ to consider
အရိပ်အယောင် ။ sign, indication, shape, form
လွှမ်းမိုး ။ influence; overwhelm; overshade; overshadow; supercede
မေ့လျော့ ။ forgetful
တစ်စွန်းတစ်စ ။ a bit, a little bit
မျက်နှာပုပ် ။ scowl
ဟောင်းလောင်း ။ uncovered, exposed
တောက်လျှောက် ။ at a stretch; continuously; nonstop

Translation:

"When one's body gets old, one's skin will wrinkle up. When one's voice gets old, it will tremble. And when one's mind gets old, one becomes dazed and stares into the distance," he thought.

When that elderly man and woman were gazing out into the distance, Poe Tha often came to think about and consider the characteristics of old age.

Although the 'impudent grandmother' was younger than the elderly man, the signs of old age were more overwhelming in her. She was even more forgetful than the elderly man. Sometimes, the elderly man could be heard saying in frustration, "Hey, Ma Shwe, come. I'm asking if your grandmother has finished eating." If he knew a little bit about the 'impudent grandmother' who was being asked only whether she had already eaten or not, he would be happy.

Poe Tha's older sister was not very pleased with the 'impudent grandmother'. The reason was that the elderly lady had looked at the back split skirt that his sister had worn and with a scowl said "With the bottom widely parted and the top part worn low down, have you stretched it open in order for it to be revealing?" Although his elder sister grumbled, saying "Old grandmother who doesn't understand the times​, အန်းတိတ်ကြီး!", it was true that she did not continue to wear that back split skirt often. Poe Tha was watching in silence because because he was young. Since Poe Tha did not like that skirt even a little bit, in his mind he was silently grateful to the 'impudent grandmother'.

However, ... the trousers with many pockets that Poe Tha wore...