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.