If we conclude that a particular usage of the Historical Present in narrative pragmatically highlights the ensuing speech or event as prominent, how might we indicate this in translation? I suppose one obvious answer is: that’s why we learn Greek! But translation has its place – so is there a way of indicating this sort of prominence in English? Other sorts of prominence-markers, such as direct address or metacomments, seem to have more obvious counterparts in English.
Let me give an example of what I mean: If we decide that in John 14:6, John’s use of the historical present legei is designed to highlight Jesus’ renegotiation of the topic or something like that, how might we bring a similar sense of highlighting in English? It doesn’t seem to be represented by use of the default past tense in English: “Jesus said to him.” And of course, putting it into the present tense in English wouldn’t work at all – as it wouldn’t carry an equivalent pragmatic function.
I’ve wondered this very thing. If there be such an importance inherent in this use of the present, most English translations don’t reflect it.
Yeah – it’s hard to imagine how it might be attempted without overdoing it. I’m curious as to whether people have ideas though