Among many sleepless nights during this long summer, I have seen many types of sunrises. One thing that studying languages has taught me is that there are often multiple ways to say a single thing.
List of Ways to say a single thing:
I’ve seen sunrises so red it looks like the clouds are ablaze.
Sunrises that creep upon the reader unawares, approaching stealthily before bursting beyond the clouds.
Sunrises that come rising on the horizon, like a wave of liquid gold brimming under the morning mist.
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In French, “le lever du soleil” has l’aurore and l’aube, the aurora and the dawn. In Greek myth, Aube is the personification of the hour of dawn. The classical painter Lawrence Alma-Tadema has a wonderful picture of L’aube. The crack of dawn is la pointe du jour, and the light of the dawn is le crépuscule.
In Italian, the dawn is l’alba. The crack of dawn is al sorgere del sole or irrompere dell’alba.
Spanish has alba as well, and la salida del sol, and la luz del alba. An interesting idiom, from dawn to dusk: de sol a sol — or literally, from sun to sun.
True to German form, der Sonnenaufgang, Morgengrauen, and die Morgendämmerung are compounds. Sonnen, for sun, aufgang, for rising or even stairs. Grauen, in this context, is (day)break. Dämmerung is an interesting word, because it pertains to any lighting: Abenddämmerung is twilight or dusk, Morgendämmerung is dawn.
