VOCABULARY DRILL : Read the following Myanmar song. Accomplish the vocabulary tasks that follow.

Rice Pounding Songs


1


Set down the mortars, line them up neatly. Girls of the She Noun, take up the pestle-stones;

Then we sing Shwe Nyaung and chant it

merrily in time,

As gracefully as we pound away.

2


What means that noise, that bustle we hear?

Oh, a lady of the She Noun is giving alms,

With the music of drums and gongs.

3

There is red-gold radiance over there;

Perhaps the sun has risen.

No, it’s the dyed robes of the monks

On their rounds with their begging bowls.

Come fill them with alms – food!

4

This Chicrkransia which I planted

Isn’t it lovely? Tiny buds on slender stems

But if you pluck them before they flower,

My plant will wither away, you know.

5

Hey there, maiden at the loom,

What cloth are you weaving?

Oh, need you ask, in these thin times?

It’s cotton coverlet for me.