- English translation
You can tell a bright night already by late afternoon.
- Literal wording
The luminous night is evident from the afternoon.
- Meaning and lesson
A festive, joyful evening announces itself well before nightfall: by late afternoon one can already sense whether the coming night will be full of warmth, company, and delight. Its brightness is chiefly that of good company and cheer, not merely moonlight, and the image ties an occasion's quality to the mood visible hours ahead.
More broadly, the saying holds that beginnings reveal what follows. The first signs of an undertaking, relationship, or event are taken as reliable indicators of its eventual character, so a good start is read as a promise of a good outcome, and an early impression is trusted as a forecast.
- When it is used
Suitable when early signs of an event, gathering, or venture look promising and a speaker wants to predict a happy outcome, voicing confidence that a good beginning already shows how things will turn out.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
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