German expression in English
September 9, 2020 6:00 AM   Subscribe

I need to translate a German idiomatic expression into English.

It's about an entrepreneur in the food industry who has discovered, let's say, seeds** as a basis for a new product and is now coming out with a whole line of seed-related foodstuffs.
He has a text on his website about the whole seeds thing, and one slightly humorous subtitle is "AUF DEN KERN GEKOMMEN".

He has asked me to translate the text.

"Auf den...gekommen" is an expression any native German speaker understands, but I am baffled what to write in English that would preserve its not entirely serious character.

**it's not actually seeds
posted by Omnomnom to Writing & Language (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Google translates it as, "Get to the Core." . This might get you a little closer.
posted by CollectiveMind at 6:06 AM on September 9, 2020


Depending on the subject which is not really seeds, you could use similar set phrases like "A kernel of truth" or "[_] in a nutshell".
posted by sukeban at 6:20 AM on September 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: It would have to be product related puns, then? (I was afraid of that.)
posted by Omnomnom at 6:28 AM on September 9, 2020


If it were seeds I'd say "seeds of change" or something like that. To my mind the sort of "made of more" type not especially serious slogans would be the go-to variety.
posted by london explorer girl at 6:35 AM on September 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


It sounds like a food pun but without knowing what seeds actually is, it's hard to say. There's a lot of food related meanings for kern. If the actual thing in involves roots, "get to the root of the matter" - if it's fruit that has a core (like an apple), "get to the core [of the matter/issue]" would work.
posted by Candleman at 6:51 AM on September 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Some other idiomatic expressions that might work or be adaptable:

Get down to brass tacks (zum Kern der Sache zu kommen)

Cut to the chase (same)

A look behind the curtain

Behind the scenes (“behind the seeds” has been used as a humorous name for a tour of a farming facility)

The nitty-gritty details

The crux of the problem
posted by jedicus at 6:57 AM on September 9, 2020


Not knowing the word I could imagine any of these:

Get to the heart of the matter

Got the idea

At its core

Also, not knowing the word, seeds and Kern does not necessarily make a very good word play. I would translate seeds as Samen or Saatgut. Kern would at best be a subset of seeds, specifically large ones like the ones found in cherries or plums. So if the relationship of the actual words is similar I would translate this freely because bad wordplay does not achieve marketing objectives but that’s just me.
posted by koahiatamadl at 7:14 AM on September 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


This is a job that businesses would get a professional translator in for, and the translator/agency would bill them for hours' worth of transcreation/localisation.

I.e. this is very tricky to do well. We'd need to know exactly what the product is, and ideally see all the rest of the marketing text there is about the product... (If it's Kernkraft for example there is tonnes you could do with that...)
posted by runincircles at 7:20 AM on September 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: I agree, runincircles.

However, it is what it is and for Reasons I have been tasked with making sure no obviously horrible mistranslation occurs.
posted by Omnomnom at 8:18 AM on September 9, 2020


I believe your premise ("Auf den...gekommen" is an expression any native German speaker understands) is incorrect.

There is one specific phrase "auf den Hund gekommen" that everyone would indeed know how to use. It means something like "ending up in the dumps" or "having gone to seeds" [and I'm guessing you won't be interested in this particular seed reference...]

Related similar-sounding formulations are derivations from this original phrase and as such not automatically universally understandable. They are often witticisms that require a little extra thought, quite like your example "auf den Kern gekommen" which possibly means something like 'having found out the importance (for oneself and others) of the kernel/seed/[but also]core-of-the-matter.'

So, for instance, the phrase "auf den Punkt gekommen" pops up on Google a number of times, for example as the title of a painting-by-numbers book. Funny, right. The expression also creates another association with "auf den Punkt gebracht" which is existing and widely recognized for meaning "having put something really concisely." So "auf den Punkt gekommen" fetches its recognizability in fact from two different other better-known phrases.

In the same manner, "Kern" does strengthen your example's would-be recognizability because there's also the expression "das also war des Pudels Kern," which is colloquially used today as meaning "so that's what's behind it all." (The phrase is originally a line from Goethe's Faust part I (Studierzimmer I, Pudelszene), said by Faustus once he understands that the black poodle that's been following him around during his walk actually is Mephisto).

Back to "auf den...gekommen." One would have to craft a new pun, forge new links to existing phrases of a kind "that every native German speaker would understand" and decide, while doing so, whether the new pun (or what else association or linguistic pyrotechnics) has to be product-related, brand-related, personal in some way, or what else. Without the actual context nobody here will be able to help you in any meaningful way, and even then your options are apparently plentiful.
posted by Namlit at 11:20 AM on September 9, 2020 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: These answers were actually really helpful. Thank you!
posted by Omnomnom at 12:44 PM on September 9, 2020


Namlit - this is fab, I just want to say English has "gone to the dogs" with the same meaning!
posted by lokta at 1:32 PM on September 9, 2020 [2 favorites]


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