Reddit mentions of The Rig Veda (Penguin Classics)

I've read the old Ralph Griffith translations... they are readable but don't provide much in the way of context, and he uses some archaic or untranslated terms that will probably send you running to Google. Wendy Doniger is controversial to some people but I like the work that she has done on adding context and introducing more modern analysis that doesn't treat Brahmanic life as the only thing happening in ancient India. I haven't read her translation and it seems to only be selections, but it looks like it adds some notes and introduction that would probably make it more valuable than the free versions of Griffith that are online.

For everyone saying 'take it to /r/Hinduism', if someone were interested in the Vedas as a way of better understanding the context that the Buddha taught in, people who don't regard them as a sacred text might have more useful insights with respect to which translations contain useful supplementary notes, provide context, prefer preserving meaning over poetry, etc. Doniger is persona non grata among conservative Hindus and there are nationalist and anti-colonialist influences that strongly color how some within the tradition interpret the Vedas. I assume that if someone is going to try to read a translation of the Vedas then they know what they are, and know that they aren't part of the Buddhist canon. Here's an essay by an Indian that covers why asking Hindus advice on reading the Vedas might not be worthwhile.

> Sadly no. Thanks to schooling in the US I do, however, know Latin, which is Sanskrit's equally difficult, retarded western cousin.

See. This is what I don't get. I find Sanskrit to be a very beautiful language, and some of the best poetry I have read is in Sanskrit, but why do you need to put down another language to make that point? There's nothing retarded about Latin. If they ever met, I'm sure Kalidasa would have been good friends with Virgil, Cicero and Chanakya could have had interesting debates about individual morality and the greater good.

>I've read chunks of English translations and have been disappointed. I don't know Sanskrit, but it's annoying to see them try to somehow verbatim, 100% translate the Vedas (i.e. "Soma juice"). Yes to the latter, though.

I know a lot of people here hate her, but the best English translation of Vedic poetry I have come across is Wendy Doniger's Rig Veda. She only translates 108 hymns, but it's done quite well and gives a good feel of the original.