Thein Pe Myint (28)

The following text and translation covers page 28 of Thein Pe Myint's short story "ငွေစိန် လှေလှော်ရင်း တက်ကျိုးခြင်း", which I have scanned from page 356 of "ဝတ္ထုတိုပေါင်းချုပ်သစ်" [A new collection of short stories].

Vocabulary:

လက်ကိုင်တုတ် ။ walking stick
ကြိမ်တုတ် ။ cane stick
ကောက် ။
ယှဉ် ။ to put together side by side; compete; vie
ရွက်ထည် ။ canvas, sail-cloth
ဟောဒီ ။ this
ကွဲအပ် ။ to crack
ပဲ့တင်သံ ။ echo
ထိုက်တန် ။ suitable, fit
ရင်းနှီး ။ to invest

Translation:

5

On the morning of the following day while I was returning from taking a morning walk I saw that Htun Khin had arrived at my home. Htun Khin stood up and welcomed me. Htun Khin was alone. He was making a desolate appearance. Ngwe Sein had pulled out the cherry wood walking stick that she had brought as a present and set it on the table. If Ngwe Sein was able to follow [the case], they [who were] husband and wife were going to make a ceremony of paying their respects and with the walking stick to me as a [gift of] gratitude. I put the cane stick from my hand alongside the cherry stick and set it down. While stretching out and sitting on a chair [I said]

“Sit down Htun Khin, mate. [Let us] speak freely, of course.”

Htun Khin sat down like a big doll falling apart with broken arms and broken legs

I threw onto the table the small round hat of soft material that I had put on in the morning. Next I removed and threw aside the canvas shoe and socks. After that [I said]

“Okay, how is [the situation], please speak.”

“Please read this little letter, sir.”

As for his voice, it was cracking. In that, it was the echo of the breaking of his heart.

It was a letter that was written on a loose paper that had been pulled out from a notebook.

I write to elder brother.

It is the case that because I am afraid of a tiger I depend on you, [but] you are worse than the tiger. It has come to be a life in which it is not suitable for me to be with elder brother [you].

I have set aside 200 kyat for elder brother [you] to invest. I am relieved that elder brother [you] will be freed because I spoke with the great teacher [the lawyer/narrator]. After you go to the great teacher [give him] this walking stick in an act of gratitude.