Thanks for all the advice and links you provided.
Jan, I am ordering the CD from the site you linked to, it is great.
I am still looking to read The Vedas, but, I have come across more than a few translations.
Some of them are obviously Westernized, Modernized, Americanized versions that have been dumbed down for mass consumption.
That's not what I want.
Some are silly self-help books that attempt to put forth the writer's interpretation of what the Vedas is trying to say.
I don't want someone to tell me what THEY think it means.
I can't read Devanagari, obviously, and I know that a direct translation into English would not be possible due to grammatical differences between the languages.
However, what I am looking for is the closest I can get to a direct translation.
I don't mind (even prefer it) if the author includes notes on the translation, meanings of phrases, history, referenced Gods and such.
But I do want all the Suktas intact and in order.
I want to read the closest to the original I can get my hands on without spending the next ten years learning Sanskrit and translating the texts myself.
The problem I have is, since I don't read Devanagari Sanskrit, I don't know what is more accurate than what.
Someone from another site posted
this link.
The translation of the last Sukta of the Rig Veda from the site he linked to (I don't know whose translation it is, but I would very much like to know):
1. Agni, showerer (of benefits), thou who
art the lord, thou verily combinest with all
creatures, thou art kindled upon the
footmark of Ila, bring unto us riches.
2. Go together, speak together, know
your minds to be functioning together from
a common source, in same manner as the
impulses of creative intelligence, in the
beginning, remain together united near the
source.
3. Integrated is the expression of
knowledge, an assembly is significant in
unity, united are their minds while full of
desires. For you I make use of the
integrated expression of knowledge.
4. United be your purpose, harmonious
be your feelings, collected be your mind,
in the same way as all the various aspects
of the universe exist in togetherness,
wholeness.
The copy I have (translated by Ralph Griffith [1896]) says this:
1. THOU, mighty Agni, gatherest up all that is precious for thy friend.
Bring us all treasures as thou art enkindled in libation's place
2 Assemble, speak together: let your minds be all of one accord,
As ancient Gods unanimous sit down to their appointed share.
3 The place is common, common the assembly, common the mind, so be their thought united.
A common purpose do I lay before you, and worship with your general oblation.
4 One and the same bt your resolve, and be your minds of one accord.
United be the thoughts of all that all may happily agree.
I have seen at least 3 more translations that vary enough to change the intended meaning of the Sukta.
Now, I am not looking for which interpretation is closest to what Hindu's believe, I am looking for the closest to the original so I can read it myself and come up with my own interpretation.
Someone put me in touch with a book buyer that works at a metaphysics book store in Manhattan specializing in Eastern Philosophy and an old Hindu Temple in Queens.
I will see where they lead me.
I was hoping someone here would have some helpful advice for me besides talking to the book buyer and the Yogis at the temple.
