The following text and translation covers the page 6 of Thein Pe Myint's short story "ငွေစိန် လှေလှော်ရင်း တက်ကျိုးခြင်း", which I have scanned from page 334 of "ဝတ္ထုတိုပေါင်းချုပ်သစ်" [A new collection of short stories].
Vocabulary:
ဟန်ပြင် ။ to prepare for action
အနုပ် ။ small change
အမ်း ။ to give back change
ပွေ့ ။ to lift, carry or hold up in one's arms
သောက် ။ intentional mispronunciation of "စောက်", which is an expletive connoting a vulgar reference to female genitalia
လွန်လွန်း ။ to be too much
အကျွမ်းတဝင် ။ intimately
အခိုက် ။ moment
အရေထူ ။ be thick-skinned (fig)
ကြံစည် ။ to think, plan, formulate, plot, conspire
အစုံအလင် ။ fully; completely with everything necessary
လျှပ်စီး ။ a flash of lightning
Translation:
While speaking he preparing to put away the shoe tray that was spread out. As I was pulling out a five kyat bill he could see that there would be a difficulty due to not having small change to give back. At that time a woman came running.
"Ko Htun Khin, what are you doing? Pack up the shop! And [you] were warned early on."
While that woman was picking up the shoes she put them into Ko Htun Khin's pine box. And from her mouth...
"And as for those police c*nts, even on Saturday we do sales well. Every time on Saturday they don't come and round up [the market sellers. But now they're just going too far."
Ko Htun Khin to me with a face of embarrassed imposition [said]...
"Sir, wait one moment please. I'll return you the one kyat."
After that the woman looked up at me. I happened to think that I had previously seen her intimately. However, suddenly I could not remember when and in regards to what issue I had encountered her. At that moment a big municipal lorry truck stopped in front of them. Police jumped down from the lorry continuously.
As for Htun Khin he no longer had time to finish putting away the shop. The police grabbed the market table, the pine box on which were laid out the shoes and the stool that was placed on the table and while taking all of it away they got onto the lorry.
As for Htun Khin and the woman, during the event they behaved stoically. While staying relaxed they were planning what to do. Although I could not hear all of the words that they were speaking, at the end I heard the words "Ngwe Sein, as I think that will be good I'll take a look mate," which Htun Khin [said].
After they had spoken Htun Khin reached out to me with a feeling of embarrassment due to imposition. Ngwe Sein while mixing together with Htun Khin looked at me and smiled with a sense of apology. However, in his smile it was just like there was flash of lightning. He remembered to behave towards me. He lowered his head calmly and remained biting his thumb. While Htun Khin was coming to me he said to Ngwe Sein...
1 comments:
'thu do shey hma htoe yat' = pulled up before them
'set ma yat hmi bin' = even before the engine had stopped
' ay ay say say bin' = calmly
'pyat thaa swa' = clearly
"See and do (see to it) just what Ngwe Sein (you) think is good." Burmese often use names instead of the second or even first person pronouns.
Htun Khin turned his eyes toward me mindful of the imposition. Ngwe Sein joined him to give me an apologetic smile, albeit like a flash of lighting. She seemed to have recognized me. She lowered her face regaining composure and biting her thumb.
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