N 38   Books I Translated     1

Let me tell you first why I come to translate  books. I don’t want to use translater because I don’t consider myself a true professional translater, but only an amateur. I started to read books from my middle school years. English and Burmese alike. So I come to like them and admire the writers who can inspire people with their writings and I also  want to be able to write like them. But to be a writer one needs to  try hard , to be zealous, to be creative,  gifted etc. I don’t have those abilities . So after retiring I try to do translating.

The first book I translated was “Quiet Skies on Salween “ I think it was about twelve years ago. It is about old Taunggyi , round about the beginning of 20^th century. The author is Ellen Thorp. She came to Taunggyi in 1906 with her father and family to live there for 16 years. Her father had come to work as a principle of the Shan Chiefs school in  Taunggyi . This school was meant to educate the sons and relatives of the Sawbwas (Chiefs ) of Shan State. So there are some parts related to the Sawbwas of that time . But not politically and only as parents and principle relationship.

The author also described her childhood days in Taunggyi, about the town , about  the school, the picnics they went and about their extensive travelling ( by bullock carts ) to Merng Kaing , to Mogok, to Inle, Loikaw etc.

So when we read this book we come to know much about Taunggyi and the lives of people  of those days and gain much regional knowledge concerning some parts of the Shan State. There  are also some remarkable things to note too but I will not relate them now.

The name “Quiet Skies on Salween” is meant for Taunggyi of that time. Because in the 1930s motor cars had started to arrive and with the coming of the 2^nd World  War the sound of trucks and tanks and artilleries will also be penetrating into the once calm and tranquil skies of the Shan State.

The author  forsee it and she was worried and wrote about what is going to happen in the future. But what will she say if she is to see Taunggyi as it is now.

to be continued.....