Wen Rui'an's "A Spear of Alarm" 惊艳一枪

Introducing ... A Spear of Alarm 惊艳一枪, a story by Wen Rui'an 温瑞安, one of the top 5 wuxia authors of the 20th century. (The others are Jin Yong, Gu Long, Liang Yusheng and Huang Yi).

There was a recent HK TVB adaptation of this story, titled "Strike at Heart", with Joe Ma, Stephen Au, Sunny Chan, Charmaine Sheh, Annie Man and Shek Sau, so I thought I'd do a pilot translation of the real novel for die-hard wuxia fans out there. :D

Despite the fame of "The Four Renowned Constables" 四大名捕, Wen Rui'an and his works remain relatively unknown in English-speaking wuxia circles. I hope the translation of A Spear of Alarm will help to make Wen better known.

Please do not hesitate to post your comments and feedback here or in this thread (below) about the translation. Thank you!

HYS :bow:

Thank you for posting another translatino.

The thing with Wen Rui'an is that his stories seems to me like detective stories in ancient setting but he never had the brief, light, witty language of GL or the historical depths of JY.

HAn solo

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Originally Posted by Han Solo

Thank you for posting another translatino.

The thing with Wen Rui'an is that his stories seems to me like detective stories in ancient setting but he never had the brief, light, witty language of GL or the historical depths of JY.

HAn solo

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Is this opinion based on the TV adaptations or his novels?

The intro for volume 1 appeals to me a lot. The philosophy expressed there makes a lot of sense. Seems like there will be a lot of intrigue coming up in chapter 1.1 . This novel strikes me as being serious and merciless, as opposed to long drawn out palm fights that end up with no fatalities. Can't wait to read more :)

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He waited for an order -- the order to have Zhuge killed.

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I like the sound of that! Too bad he isn't speaking about Zhuge Liang hehe

Would reading the latter volumes before volume 1 spoil the fun?

He seems to be more Gu Long ish in his short phrases and exclamations. His philosophy is definitely more emphasised than either Gu Long or Jin Yong. (Not more of it, just more directly stated, rather than through the novel as a statement)

Very interesting.

I'd love to read more of his work, especially since he was the most prolific of the WuXia authors of the last century. Ironic pretty much none of his work has been translated, not even the Four Constables!

Rob

I know this is an old thread and the translation hasn't continued for a while, but I'd like to quibble about the title anyway.

Although 驚 means alarmed or startled, 驚艷 means stunning or breathtaking, so I feel "Breathtaking Spear" or "Stunning Spear" would be a better translation for this title.

I love the tentative title TVB used when the adaptation was still in production. The tentative title was 'Beautiful Spear'. But, when the series was released, the official English title became 'Strike At Heart'. I think the 'Beautiful Spear' is way better.