Thein Pe Myint (13)

The following text and translation covers the page 13 of Thein Pe Myint's short story "ငွေစိန် လှေလှော်ရင်း တက်ကျိုးခြင်း", which I have scanned from page 341 of "ဝတ္ထုတိုပေါင်းချုပ်သစ်" [A new collection of short stories].

Vocabulary:

ဆို့ ။ (slang) to eat; stuff (food)
အပိုင်စား ။ right to enjoy the taxes of a territory
သတ် ။ to demarcate
အပေးအကမ်း ။ giving
မှိန်း ။ to doze; have eyes half closed
ဂြိုဟ်မွှေ ။ to be in trouble.
ဂြိုဟ်ဆိုးဝင် ။ to be overtaken by misfortune.
ဒဏ်တပ် ။ fine; impose a fine

Translation:

"Ha, how would it be like that, sir? [You are] my customer who came to me and made a purchase."

When we sat down at the cold yogurt shop I [said],

"Don't you have a little money or something to stuff [pay as a bribe] so as not to get arrested?"

"Where, sir, could it be stuffed? And they who would stuff [pay a bribe] would still be arrested. However, since they've stuffed, the 'food' that they often take, one time, two times only would they take it."

"How could you pay?"

After he had raised and shown two fingers to the Indian who worked at the cold yogurt drink shop [he said],

"As for me, I have to pay two kyats per month. Some shop sellers have to pay three kyats. And it must be paid directly to the municipal police. They have to pay it via the representatives."

"Oh, and they have representatives."

"That's the way it is, sir. There are three police officers stationed from the municipal for the length of Haudy Pharayza (Anawratha) and from Mago Road (Shwebontha Road) to Theingyi Market. They each have a bag. Of course it's known that the jurisdiction where they have the right to extort has been demarcated, sir. Not knowing anything, new market sellers who don't give [the bribes] but come and spread out their mats get arrested twice or three times a month. As for the shops that pay, after staying for three months they get arrested about once, sir. In this way the new market sellers who get frequently arrested become frustrated.

I set down the glass of cold yogurt that I was drinking sleepily and [said],

"Ah, please tell me about the frustration."

"On the day one gets arrested, [that person is] in trouble. At the present time​, [someone] is arrested, sir, if one is immediately fined and let free, then it's no problem. The next day between two o'clock and four o'clock it's time for the court. Do you know the name of the court to which we go, sir?"

I who could not answer his question felt constricted as I was sitting. It was good that he did not know that I was the lawyer who stood in the door of the court.