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up vote 4 down vote favorite

Just to explain what I'm missing here, I'll attempt to translate the phrase

Wer nicht lenkt, kommt irgendwo an!

into English

If you don't steer, you arrive somewhere!

But that makes no sense to me, at least, it doesn't really say anything meaningful.

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2  
I've never heard this phrase in German. It sounds strange to my ears and doesn't quite make sense IMHO. There's this saying: "Wer nicht lenkt, der wird gelenkt.", but I guess that's different. – splattne♦ Dec 16 '11 at 14:41

4 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

I do not know this phrase, so I'm curious where you have read/heard it. Context could help to translate it correctly. Here follows my guess:

If you don't steer, you do not arrive at your planned destination, just at some arbitrary place.

Yes, it's a little bit long. The emphasis would be on "irgendwo" (somewhere, anywhere). With the correct emphasis it should be obvious that a subordinate clause beginning with "but" was omitted:

Wer nicht lenkt, kommt irgendwo an, aber nicht dort wo er will!

If you don't steer, you arrive somewhere, but not where you want!

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It was in an email I was translating. I guessed that it meant something like this but you can't just drop that sub clause in English so I found it a bit confusing. – z7sg Ѫ Dec 16 '11 at 14:49
2  
@z7sgѪ: It is confusing in German also, especially when it is written. In a conversation when you hear the pronunciation this would be much easier to comprehend. – John Smithers Dec 16 '11 at 15:26
up vote 5 down vote

I suggest the translation

If you don't steer, you could arrive anywhere.

(edited, thanks to z7sg)

Does that convey the meaning John Smithers correctly explained?

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Yes it does, except that in English I think could is preferred with positive anywhere rather than will. – z7sg Ѫ Dec 16 '11 at 14:50
Good point, thanks! – elena Dec 19 '11 at 7:47
up vote 4 down vote

We can just guess here without knowing the context but the German sentence has a flavour as if it could have been said from a motivational or inspirational speaker. Only in this context we could also quote Tony Christiansen:

"Life is like flying a plane, if you don't steer it you end up going somewhere you don't want to be."

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up vote 0 down vote

Without knowing the context your translation sounds perfect to me. But I also never heard this before. A possible context where it might make sense would be, e.g., a boat on the sea.

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