Re: Translating Imperatives

From: Jim West (jwest@Highland.Net)
Date: Fri Aug 20 1999 - 10:54:13 EDT


At 09:41 AM 8/20/99 -0500, you wrote:

>William Tyndale sometimes translated the imperative as, "See that you...",
>which seems much better. Or maybe something like, "You must..."?

This is very good and nicely represents the sense of the imperative.

>
>And in the Lord's Prayer, starting in Matthew 6:9, where the imperative is
>used several times for entreaty, it seems that no attempt is made to convey
>the force to the English reader. Would it be too much to translate it as, "I
>plead with you to ..." or something like that?

Hmmm... "plead with you" still suggests something a little less forceful
than a command. Maybe something like "is!"

> "hAGIASQHTW TO ONOMA SOU" as "Hallowed be Thy name"

Your name IS sanctified!!!!

> "ELQETW hH BASILEIA SOU" as "Thy kingdom come"

Your kingdom IS come!!!

> "GENHQHTW TO QELHMA SOU" as "Thy will be done"

"Your will IS done!!!

The force of Is - is emphasised by the exclamation points. (exclamation
points, etc, are very useful for denoting forcefulness of expression).
Further, the "petitions" of the Lord's Prayer are not really requests but
statements of fact.

best,

Jim

+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Jim West, ThD
email- jwest@highland.net
web page- http://web.infoave.net/~jwest

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