Many of the most obscure images and turns of phrase in the Rig Veda make sense as poetic realizations of specific ritual activities […] every apparent barbarity in syntax, in word choice, in imagery is deliberate and a demonstration of skill whose motivation I must seek.
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On translating the Rig Veda: three questions. In: Jones-Bley, Karlene, Martin E. Huld and Angela Della Volpe (eds.) Proceedings of the Eleventh UCLA Indo-European Conference; Los Angeles, 1999 (=JIES Monograph 35), 1-20. Washington, DC: Institute for the Study of Man.
Notes from Wikiquote
quoted in Thomson, K. (2009). A still undeciphered text: How the scientific approach to the Rigveda would open up Indo-European studies. Journal of Indo-European Studies, 37(1-2), 1-72.