This post presents page 7 of 12 of Ma Sanda's short story "The tree planters" from her book Ban-pwint-khayay [Blossoming star flower].
Vocabulary:
အေးမြ ။ serene; peaceful
လွင့် ။ to blow away, flutter
မြူး ။ to frolic; gambol; play
နှစ်ခြိုက် ။ like (behaviour, manner); be pleased with; be delighted with; relish
အလွမ်း ။ longing; yearning; sorrow; sentimentality
သင့် ။ to get on well
မျက်စောင်းထိုး ။ cast a sideglance; look sideways in anger, scorn or disdain
နောက်ပြောင် ။ to tease, joke, make fun of
ကင်ပေတိုင် ။ Kempeitai: military police belonging to the Japanese army of occupation during World War II
ထွေ ။ be perturbed or unsettled in mind; be worried
ထွေးခံ ။ spittoon
ဆုတ်ခွာ ။ to retreat, withdraw
တကောင်း ။ goglet
Translation
The flag was fluttering in the cool serene wind that was blowing about. The elderly man who was looking out from one side of the fence was smiling with delight.
From that day forth the elderly man and Poe Tha got on well together. Not only Poe Tha but also Bo Aung was free to pick and eat guavas from the elderly man's garden guavas as they liked.
Although he got on well with the elderly man, Poe Tha's relations with the elderly woman were not alright. Every time the elderly woman saw Poe Tha she asked, "Who is he Ko Poe Chit?" While looking at the elderly man in anger she would say,"Look at that group of people. Are they one of my people? I don't know. Are they English people? I don't know. Are they Japanese people? I don't know." Poe Tha understood that the "impudent woman's" mind would go here and there because she was forgetful.
One time Bo Aung pointed his finger at Poe Tha and said with a joking mind, "He's a Japanese military police office. [He's here] because Ko Poe Chit caught him." Looking at Poe Tha with an unsettled mind the elderly woman grit her teeth and spat forcefully from her side towards to a big spittoon. Poe Tha avoided [the spit] and did not split his head. Because she missed the spittoon the elderly woman was not pleased. While she reached out from her side and took a tea pot and a goglet, Poe Tha and Bo Aung quickly withdrew.
The elderly man laughed with pleasure when he heard about the event.
0 comments:
Post a Comment