Nur ein Künstler kann den Sinn des Lebens erraten.

I usually see “erraten” translated as “guess”. Is this sort of idiomatic?

answer the question above please

It is always helpful to quote the official translation for the discussion, otherwise the question is not understandable.

Cazoort is right:

“etwas erraten” = “to guess something”

However, normally “erraten” means that you have no base to know a result, so it is really guesswork.
Clearly, that is not meant here. I would maybe translate:

Only an artist can fathom the meaning of life.

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