Thein Pe Myint (21)

The following text and translation covers page 21 of Thein Pe Myint's short story "ငွေစိန် လှေလှော်ရင်း တက်ကျိုးခြင်း", which I have scanned from page 349 of "ဝတ္ထုတိုပေါင်းချုပ်သစ်" [A new collection of short stories].

Vocabulary:

ကွက်ကွက်ကွင်းကွင်း ။ distinctly; clearly; vividly
ဟန် ။ be all right
မတ် ။ a quarter (of a Kyat, one Kyat weight, an hour, an inch, an acre)
မျို ။ swallow; gobble
အဆင်သင့် ။ be opportune; be favourable; be suitable
ဟန်ကျ ။ succeed; do well; be suitable; be fitting
နေနေသာသာ ။ let alone; not to speak of
ဝလင် ။ enjoy sth to one's satisfaction; look well-fed, sleek.
လုံ ။ be fully covered or enveloped
ထယ် ။ ထည် [?] an article of clothing
ဝဲ ။ to hover or fly in circles
လည် ။ to spin
ညောင်း ။ (of time) be long
အိုးစားကွဲ ။ to be separated
သွက် ။ fast; swift; fluent; glib (of tongue)
အားရှိပါးရှိ ။ strongly; vigorously; lustily

Translation:

Because of his clear explanation I laughed "Ha Ha" and [said],

"Have you never done other work than this?"

"Hah, what would be good for me to say, sir? There have been many kinds of work. I've also sold Mohinga. I've also sold newspapers. Lastly, sir, because I was not alright with any work I've even ground snacks [?] at a Chinese house. For one month I got 60 [kyat]. After eating I paid a quarter for a cigarette. Don't talk any more about being exhausting, sir. Having to work from sun rise to sun set my whole body is greatly exhausted of strength from standing until coming. In this way, due to exhaustion a wife could not swallow her food [no woman would accept him as a husband?]. As for Ngwe Sein, she works suitably. She works hard selling, she sells a watermelon mind [?], later she looks for tasks to do at other people's homes. There is no work at which she does not succeed. Not to mention the fact that in order to make business she has not gotten satisfactorily married and she can't dress to be fully covered. With that she's spinning around on Pharayza Road (Anawratha Road) between Mago Street (Shwebontha Road) and Theingyi Market."

Quite a long time had come to pass. It was time for me to return home. And he would soon have to put away the shop.

"Thank you for explaining these things. I will take on your legal case as a lawyer. And you will be freed. And I won't take one piaster as a fee. Okay, go on. Do this work simply and honestly like this, mate. And being exhausted, what can be done?"

"This way of course sir, what can be done? [Even] If I wanted to be separated from life, I'd have to work."

"Yes, yes. Go on. Go on. Since you don't have children its of course alright, mate. When it gets close to the date for your legal case you'll come and see me once, right?"

"Okay, sir."

His words were very smooth. As for his legal case​, it could be once vigorously.

He went off.

If a case was true, I wouldn't even take on my father's case for free...