7I, Daniel, alone saw the vision; the people who were with me did not see the vision, though a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled and hid themselves.
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)
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.”
The term that is transliterated as “Daniel” in English is translated in American Sign Language with the sign for the letter D and for “lion,” referring to the story in Daniel 6. (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Daniel” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with the sign for “prayer” that illustrates Daniel’s close relationship with God.
Following is a hand colored stencil print on washi of Daniel by Sadao Watanabe (1965):
Image taken with permission from the SadaoHanga Catalogue where you can find many more images and information about Sadao Watanabe. For other images of Sadao Watanabe art works in TIPs, see here.
The following is a stained glass window depicting Daniel by Endre Odon Hevezi and Gyula Bajo from 1965 for the Debre Libanos Monastery, Oromia, Ethiopia:
Photo by Timothy A. Gonsalves, hosted by Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Daniel 10:7:
Kupsabiny: “The people I was with did not see that person, but I alone saw (it/him). Those people became so terrified and they fled off to hide themselves.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Only I, Daniel, had seen that vision. The men with me did not see anything but, being very much afraid, they ran away to hide.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “I (was) the only one who saw that vision. My companions did- not -saw this, but they were-scared and hid because of fear.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
English: “I, Daniel, was the only one who saw this vision. The men who were with me did not see anything, but they sensed that someone was there, and they became terrified. They ran away and hid themselves.” (Source: Translation for Translators)
I, Daniel: see verse 2 as well as the earlier references.
Vision: the word thus translated here differs very slightly from the usual word for a “vision,” and some commentators feel that the difference is intentional because it refers, not to an internal impression on the imagination, but to a real (although extraordinary) external display. For this reason some versions render it differently: “the sight” (Anchor Bible); “the apparition” (New Jerusalem Bible). Most versions, however, make no such distinction.
Alone: this qualifies the verb saw and is not intended to describe Daniel’s circumstances as a whole. As the context indicates, there were others with him, but he was the only one to see the vision. Note the similarity of this account with the experience of Paul recorded in Acts 9.
The men who were with me: New Revised Standard Version revises this to “the people who were with me,” while Revised English Bible has “those who were near me.” There is no special emphasis on the maleness of those accompanying Daniel at this point.
A great trembling fell upon them: the context seems to suggest that this fearful reaction may have occurred before the vision actually fully appeared. So in some languages it may be necessary to make this clear by saying something like “at the very beginning of the vision, they were very frightened” or “before I actually saw the vision, the men ran away and hid because they were very much afraid.” In some languages the way of expressing great fear will be quite idiomatic: “their stomachs were up high,” “their livers were agitated,” or “they saw great terror.”
They fled to hide themselves: the purpose of their running away was to hide. Some will say, however, “they ran away and concealed themselves.”
Quoted with permission from Péter-Contesse, René & Ellington, John. A Handbook on Daniel. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.