Tree planters (2/12)

This post presents page 2 of 12 of Ma Sanda's short story "The tree planters" from her book Ban-pwint-khayay [Blossoming star flower].

Vocabulary:

နီးစပ် ။ to be friendly with
ခြေဆုပ်လက်နယ်ပြု ။ to attend on a person tenderly and affectionately
နေသာ ။ (of pain) become bearable; be fairly comfortable; assume a couldn't care less attitude
ကာတွန်း ။ cartoon, comic strip
စွာ ။ impudent, aggressive
အိ ။ soft, tender, sag
သန်မာ ။ strong
ဆာ ။ (of limbs) limp or impaired
တံမြက်စည်း ။ broom
ကွပ်ပျစ် ။ kind of low wooden or bamboo bedstead
ခမျာ ။ word conveying the sense that the person or being referred to is worthy of one's sympathy (It is usually suffixed to a person or a living being and may sometimes be used independently in the manner of a pronoun. In usage it is comparable to the adjective " poor" in "poor thing"," poor boy ", " poor Mg Ba", etc
ချာချာလည် ။ spin round and round
တုန်ခါ ။ vibrate

Translation:

Mother said that she heard that the two of them were over 80 years old and their children had moved far away. And father said without compassion that at that age it would, of course, be good to live with one's children​. That was true. Although they had called a lady who was a close family friend, hearing that she would be called for a long time it could be seen that she did not especially want to attend on them, and so father did not appear good natured.

The elderly woman was like the impudent grandmother in the Kanchon Cartoon. And just like the impudent grandmother she was very fat and saggy. However, the elderly lady was not strong like the impudent grandmother and one of her legs was a little bit impaired. Therefore, she was unable to pick up rubbish and sweep in the garden like the elderly grandfather and just sat on the wooden bedstead under the mango tree in front of the house. Sometimes she recited the Wheel of Dhamma sermon. The poor woman would forget while reciting and because she would get ahead or fall behind she could not finished reciting the Wheel of Dhamma sermon would and get confused.

"There's nothing good about being old. Looking old is no good. An old mind is no good. And an old voice is no good," [thought Poe Tha].

Because of the impudent grandmother (which is what Poe Tha called her in his mind), Poe Tha would think about that [the negative aspects of getting old] while he was reciting the Wheel of Dhanna sermon. It is true that because the voices of old people are not low, not high, uneven, and vibrated, they are not good to listen to.