It is always darkest before dawn

[Cinefactus]

I want to get this as a tattoo:
It is always darkest before dawn.

but i dont want it to be mispelled. it means alot personally to me, so any help would really be apprieciated

[Chamaeleo]

Maybe something along the lines of:

‘Cælum semper obscūrissimum est dēmum ante aurōram’.

[Bitmap]

This reminds me of the Latin proverb

Post nubila Phoebus. (After a storm comes a calm)

[taintedplay]

Cælum semper obscūrissimum est dēmum ante aurōram

anyone else know if this is correct (no offense to the poster, just if its a tattoo on me forever want to double check)

[Matthaeus]

Why demum?

[Nooj]

A looser translation: tenebrae maximae est ante auroram (the darkness is greatest before dawn).

[Matthaeus]

sunt

[Nooj]

sunt

Of course. Silly me.

[Imber Ranae]

Perhaps you want something more pithy:
Nox sub aurora est caliginosissima.

[Damoetas]

Perhaps you want something more pithy:
Nox sub aurora est caliginosissima.

I vote for this version.

[taintedplay]

I'm confused on all these different translations. What's the difference? And what's sunt?

[Iohannes Aurum]

Sunt is the third person plural present indicative of esse ("to be"). The French sont is a direct descendant of the Latin sunt. For clarification, Nooj suggested (with my correction) as Tenebrae maximae sunt ante auroram (the darkness is greatest before dawn). I prefer Imber Ranae's version (Nox sub aurora est caliginosissima ("Night beneath the dawn is foggiest")), since it is pithier, which means that it is better suited for a tattoo.

[taintedplay]

whats wrong with Cælum semper obscūrissimum est dēmum ante aurōram?

[Chamaeleo]

The ‘semper’ (‘always’) and ‘dēmum’ (‘just’) make it more precise, but longer.

[Imber Ranae]

Sunt is the third person plural present indicative of esse ("to be"). The French sont is a direct descendant of the Latin sunt. For clarification, Nooj suggested (with my correction) as Tenebrae maximae sunt ante auroram (the darkness is greatest before dawn). I prefer Imber Ranae's version (Nox sub aurora est caliginosissima ("Night beneath the dawn is foggiest")), since it is pithier, which means that it is better suited for a tattoo.

Sub + abl. of an event, occasion, or period of time is an idiom that means "just before" i.e. immediately prior to it. Ante + acc. is a less definitive indicator of time. Cf. Ovid:

Namque sub aurora iam dormitante lucerna
somnia quo cerni tempore vera solent...
(Epistula Heroidum XIX, 195)

"For just before dawn, with my lamp already dying, at which time true dreams are wont to be experienced..."

Also, while caliginosus can be translated as "foggy", it doesn't really have the same connotations, or rather lack of connotations, that the English word has. It's got a bit stronger force than obscurus and is generally associated with night and the gloom of the underworld, yet it doesn't necessarily imply anything about vapor (nebulosus would better fit that bill). This is because the ancients viewed darkness not merely as the absence of light, but indeed as the obstruction of light (e.g. 2 Peter 2.17 caligo tenebrarum "the mist of darkness"). It also stands to reason that the darkest part of the night would be when the light of the moon is obscured.

Anyway, one of the main reasons I chose caliginosus over obscurus is for the word's association with uncertainty, as famously exhibited by Horace :

Prudens futuri temporis exitum caliginosa nocte premit deus, ridetque si mortalis ultra fas trepidat. (Liber Carminum III, 29)

"God, in his wisdom, hides the future in dim night, and laughs if a mortal has fears beyond what is right."