The Hebrew, Aramaic, Latin and Greek that is translated as “vision” in English is translated in a variety in the following languages:
- Chol: “as if in a dream” (source: Robert Bascom)
- Obolo: ilaak ọkpọchieen̄ or “dreaming awake” (source: Enene Enene)
- Eastern Highland Otomi: “a showing like dreams”
- Desano: “see in a dream what God will send”
- Rincón Zapotec: “see what God shows”
- Mayo: “see things from God as in a dream”
- Lalana Chinantec: “dream how it is going to be”
- Chuj: “like dreaming they see”
- San Mateo del Mar Huave: “understand what they see as if in a dream”
- Ayutla Mixtec: “see that which will happen” (source for this and seven above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.)
- Tagbanwa: “being caused to dream by God” (source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
- Chichewa: azidzaona zinthu m’masomphenya: “they will see things as if face-to-face” (interconfessional translation, publ. 1999) (Source: Wendland 1998, p. 69)
- Mandarin Chinese yì xiàng (异象 / 異象), lit. “different (or: strange) appearance.” (Source: Zetzsche)
The Greek in the books of Revelation and Acts is translated as obq-rmwible: “look-dream” in Natügu. Brenda Boerger (in Beerle-Moor / Voinov, p. 162ff.) tells the story of that translation: “In the book of Revelation, the author, John, talks about having visions. Mr. Simon [the native language translator] and I discussed what this meant and he invented the compound verb obq-rmwible ‘look-dream’ to express it. Interestingly, during village testing no one ever had to ask what this neologism meant.”
See also see a vision.