The present study aims to examine the claim that the preverbal particle 'qad' in the perfective is an aspectual marker of near past in Arabic, hence it corresponds to the present perfect in English. The authentic translational corpus drawn from two works (journalistic/scientific and literary discourse) clearly indicates that the preverbal 'qad' is employed as a cohesive marker whose main function is to smooth and naturalize Arabic discourse. The study demonstrates that the translator’s choice between an Arabic simple past with or without 'qad' is governed by the requirements of the flow of discourse rather than by aspectual marking. Failure to account for this discursive function of 'qad' when translating from English into Arabic would in Arabic translations produce cohesion gaps which in English are usually taken care of by punctuation.