How do you approach translating words that can’t be simply found in a dictionary?

Was watching a MTG video and in it there were japanese language cards mixed with English. On of the Japanese version cards in English was "Despark" translated to "灯の燼滅". This also reminded me of a manga I bought called "怖習". Which I would just simply translate as "Fear lesson".

Are there any specific strategies that people use for translation? Does it matter if you are going JP>EN or EN>JP? Does the first language of the translator have more weight in your judgement on it? Is it more about creativity?