习语翻译常用的策略主要有：

１．用意义相近的习语来翻译：

More haste, less speed. 欲速则不达。

To fish in troubled waters. 混水摸鱼。

To kill two birds with one stone. 一箭双雕。

castles in the air 空中楼阁

坐失良机 miss the boat

充耳不闻 turn a deaf ear to

破釜沉舟 burn your boat

千钧一发 hang by a hair

２．用直译法： break silence 打破沉默

The policeman found a clue to the burglary.

警察找到了盗窃案的线索。

跑得了和尚跑不了庙。

The monk can run away, but not the monastery.

竹篮打水一场空。

To draw water in a bamboo basket.

３．用意译法：

Don''t get wise with me, young man.

别对我无礼，小伙子！

But the die was cast, he could not go back.

但事已决定，他不能翻悔。

他把你的话，一五一十，都告诉我了。

He has recounted everything you said in detail to me.

万一你有个三长两短，

If anything should happen to you,

４．兼用直译和意译：

The captain scratched the beginnings of five o''clock shadow and look away.

上校一边用手抓着下午五点钟长出来的络腮胡子茬，一边向远处望去。（这句里的 five o''clock shadow, 如果直译为五点钟的阴影，中国读者一定难以理解，只好一部分直译，一部分意译。）

她单身一人，无亲无故。

She is all by herself and far from home, without a single relative or friend to help her. （这里把无亲无故直译为 without a single relative or friend，然后加上意译 to help her，使意思更明确。）