Thein Pe Myint (12)

The following text and translation covers the page 12 of Thein Pe Myint's short story "ငွေစိန် လှေလှော်ရင်း တက်ကျိုးခြင်း", which I have scanned from page 340 of "ဝတ္ထုတိုပေါင်းချုပ်သစ်" [A new collection of short stories].

Vocabulary:

ချက်ပိုင်ပိုင် ။ saying or doing sth with telling effect; have an excellent idea; do sth well.
ခွပ် ။ to squabble; fight.
မူရာမာယာ ။ wiles; a stratagem or trick intended to deceive or ensnare; a disarming or seductive manner
ကယ်တင် ။ save; rescue
ကြံမိကြံရာ ။ to plan wildly
ကြောင်ကြည့် ။ to look blank
အတိတ်ဆောင ။ to recall the past or refer to the past
ဂတ် ။ jail
စာရေးစာချီ ။ secretary
အနုတ် ။ subtraction

Translation:

I wanted Ngwe Sein to understand, as I said, that "I can accept nothing but money." Ngwe Sein said that she understood. And telling her effectively, "I want you to understand", I got into a squabble. As for her, I did not understand her well.

Ngwe Sein who I could not understand.

Was it Ngwe Sein who planned recklessly in order to save her husband?

Was it Ngwe Sein the simple woman on the road who had these seductive manners?

I did not expect to encounter this Ngwe Sein again. But while taking on a new case I encountered her again.

Ngwe Sein had gotten on to the big municipal lorry car. At that time she went off with the cars of the municipal officer and minister.

While Htun Khin was starring blankly, he said to me, as I was recalling the past in my mind:

"Hey sir, it's because it was said that those big men would make arrests that they made extraordinary arrests this Saturday. If it had been as it always is, there would be no arrests on Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Just because they can make arrests, they think that they can clear away those of us who live and work on the road. In reality, we don't want to work in this way. If they would look for any work other than this for us, we would clear off this road."

"Now who's shoe tray has been confiscated and has gotten up onto the lorry? It's my wife sir. I don't want to have relations with the clerks and lawyers of courts, jails and prisons. However, since it has come to be like this it'll be court matters and jail matters. It's just because I have my wife, sir. She's able to interact with these people. [She's] able to confront and get arrested. Oh, and more than that sir, I haven't yet returned the one kyat. Okay sir, let's go over there and drink at the cold drinks and yogurt shop. I want to treat [you to a drink]. And let it be a deduction [from the amount due], sir."

At the present time I was very interested about them. And also I am able to enjoy a cold yogurt drink.

"That's good. But, I must be the one to buy [the drinks]."