Feather of a Peacock's Tail, Book Two of Seven Weapons by Gu Long

[sarakoth]

So umm . . . this is my first time, meaning it has a fairly high probability of sucking. And if it does, please try to point out where and why and such so I can get better at this.

Chapter One
Five Assassins
Dusk.

Gao Li stood under the setting sun. The shadow of a sign with “The Scholar Gentry’s Tea House” written in gold plated words incidentally covered his face.

It was as if his face has always lurked in the shadows.

He wore blue, Taoist robes that were very spacious, for he had to conceal the pair of heavy and sharp silver spears.

The spear’s sharp point pressed against his ribs, his undershirt already soaking with sweat.

He was always nervous when he had to kill.

This street has always been the busiest out of all of the city’s streets, and it was the busiest time of the day.

His gaze pierced through the masses of people, focusing on a vendor selling caltrops.

The vendor’s name was Ding Gan.

Ding Gan was a very large man, and even a little overweight, but he had a pair of very capable hands.

He was squatting beside the street, using a curved blade to sharpen the caltrops inside the basket.

His hands didn’t look very capable.

Because he usually used the curved blade to kill, and it was said that he killed more people than caltrops in the basket.

Diagonally across the street form the Scholar Gentry’s Tea House was a simple liquor store, which only sold liquor, never food.

A wooden board sat on top of a great vat of liquor, and customers sat on bamboo stools, drinking the liquor with dishes they brought.

There was only one man in that store who didn’t drink.

That man was Tang Ye.

Tang Ye was muscular and short, often using a piece of white cloth to tame his messy hair.

No one knew where he came from, but everyone knew he was always chewing on an areca nut (seed of a type of palm tree).

Some say it was a common habit amongst Japanese pirates, but no one brought it up.

It was said that two people have asked him about it, and they both lost their tongues the following night.

A shoulder pole sat beside him, making him appear as a common coolie.

But he was no coolie, just as Gao Li was no Taoist cleric.

His shoulder pole hid a four feet long saber!

There was someone else who also appeared to be a coolie, who was drinking in front of Tang Ye.

He was very young, and known as Little Wu.

He was Tang Ye’s friend, but didn’t look like a friend of Tang Ye.

They were polar opposites of each other.

Little Wu was lazy, carefree, blissful, and loved to drink.

No one could imagine that he killed with speed and precision.

If he wanted to stab your left eye, his sword would not land elsewhere.

His weapon, a sword, was also hidden in his shoulder pole.

Two spacious horse carriages were parked under a tree, over ten steps to the right of Gao Li.

The driver was napping, a long whip sitting in his hand.

His name was Whip.

He was a long whip, the long whip was him.

Without the whip, he would’ve died countless times.

But the whip was always in his hand, so he never died.

But others did.

The five of them were together.

Gao Li, Ding Gan, Tang Ye, Little Wu, and Whip.

Right there, the five them, about to do something astonishing.

And everything they had ever done invoked blood.


Please tell me what you think. Please please please

[gombong]

HI Sarakoth,

It's great that more people want to translate wuxia novel, however I am not in position to comment on the quality of the translation since I can't read the original version.
I just would like to point out that fastclock has translated this, the translation is available at this link :
http://haddjo.freehostia.com/joomla_...ther&Itemid=59

It's great if you can translate other novel or may be book 3 ? I belive nobody translate it yet.

Cheers,

[Han Solo]

Hi sarakoth,

I think your translation is pretty good. It captures the spirit of GL.

Like what gombong said, fastclock has had translated this novel already.

Han SOlo

[sarakoth]

Hi sarakoth,

I think your translation is pretty good. It captures the spirit of GL.

Like what gombong said, fastclock has had translated this novel already.

Han SOlo

Thanks for the compliment.

I guess I have to find something else now.