When Broken Glass Floats_ Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge - Chanrithy Him [139]
* A term of endearment meaning “mother’s child.”
* Meaning “grandfather of Chinese descent,” though Kong Horne is really my mother’s uncle. In Cambodian forms of address, age sometimes takes precedence over actual family relationship; hence this uncle, who was the brother of my mother’s mother, was called “Grandpa” Horne. Similarly, a man or woman of one’s parents’ age might be called “uncle” or “aunt” as a sign of respect, even if he or she was biologically unrelated.
* Uncle.
* Father—a term used by a son who has been a Buddhist monk.
† A respectful term for an older brother or a man who is older than oneself.
* Sir.
* Lon Nol’s brother. Lon Nol was the prime minister, commander in chief, and head of state of the Khmer Republic from 1970 to 1975. He fled to Hawaii on April 1, 1975.
* Both were Cambodian Marxists who left Phnom Penh for the maquis (underground fighting) in 1967.
* Because of her age and the fact that she was Kong Houng’s sister, it was proper for us to call her “grandmother,” even though biologically she was our great-aunt.
* A long skirt that a woman wears at home; sometimes men would wear them also.
* An informant, usually a full-status Khmer Rouge member, who spied on people and reported on them to Angka Leu (the high organization).
* The term for “mother” usually used by rural or uneducated people.
† Refers to a fifty-five-gallon drum.
* Proh means boy, or man, so koon proh Mak is an endearment used by a mother meaning “my son.”
* The cooperative wooden building where the meeting is held. It is also where rice is processed and food distributed to people in Daakpo village.
* Brigade leader.
* The United States as well as the South Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in their attempt to stop the Viet Cong, but they instead drove the Viet Cong deeper into Cambodia.
* There are rhymes and rhythms in the original. Unfortunately, these cannot be rendered in the translation.
† Age based on the Zodiac signs, which made her older than she really was. According to the conventional calendar, Chea was only twenty-one.
* A gesture of respect involving pressing the palms of the hands together, then raising them to the chest or chin.
† Nephew or niece.
‡ Grandchild.
¶ The Khmer People’s National Liberation Front was an anti-Communist resistance group that fought against the Khmer Rouge. It was led by Son Sann, a distinguished prime minister from the Prince Sihanouk era.
* Similar to avorng, a nickname for a type of black bird with white and yellow markings on its head which could be trained to talk.
* Referring to the grenade that is inserted into the barrel, which is similar in shape to a banana bud.
* Toward the end of 1979, in response to the international outcry, the Thai government allowed the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to open holding centers inside Thailand. Khao I Dang opened in November and within two months had swelled to a city of 120,000. “Khao I Dang was for a while the largest Cambodian city in the world,” noted Timothy Carney, an official with the American Embassy in Bangkok (U.S. Committee for Refugees, “Cambodian Refugees in Thailand: The Limits of Asylum”).
* At the then current exchange rate, 150 bahts equaled $7.50.
* The Gulf of Thailand.