Bite-Size Burmese: Don't Show Up Without a Musical Prelude

Learn Burmese from Natural Talk

Theatrical performances, dance drama, and shows are such an integral part of Burmese culture that quite a number of everyday expressions can be traced back to them. In this episode, I'll introduce you to two such sayings:

ဆိုင်းမဆင့် ဗုံမဆင့် (to show up without a musical prelude)

မီးစင်ကြည့်ကတယ် (to dance wherever the spotlight falls)

The first one has to do with the theatrical practice of synchronizing the entrance of certain characters with the appropriate musical cues. For instance, to announce the ogre's appearance with a fittingly menacing music; to announce the prince's entrance with a princely song; and so on. As an expression, "to show up without a musical prelude" means "to show up unannounced."

There may also be times when you are required to play by ears, as you might say in English. The Burmese equivalent of that is, "to dance according to the spotlight." Listen to the mini-lesson for further explanations and usage examples. (Intro and end music: "When my ukulele plays" by Sounddroll, Upbeat.io)

Vocabulary

တူရိယာပစ္စည်း musical instruments

ဇာတ်ကောင် character

ညှိထားတယ် to synchronize, to negotiate beforehand

ဘီလူး demon, ogre

ဘီလူးဆိုင်း the musical cue for the ogre

မီးစင် spotlight

သင့်တော်သလိုလုပ် to act as one sees fit

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