What is the best way of translating expressions? literally or figuratively?

I believe the best way is to put both; the literal meaning and the alternative expression in the target language.
or at least explaining what is meant by this literal translation among brackets.
Because the translator mission is not just to translate the word.
he should as well convey the message of the original text into the target language (the embodied message).

المهارات اللغوية تبدأ من بداية سن اللغة المتمثلة في السنوات الخمس الأولي من عمر الطفل .وتبدأ من فترة المناغاة وتتقدم مع نمو الماهارات البيتية للطفل وتختلف بإختلاف الفروق الفردية بين كل طفل واخر ويتوجب إشراك كل الخواس في التدريب لتنمية المهارات .
لذلك للتدريب علي النطق له علافة كبيرة جداً بهذه الفترة التي تسمي( فترة اللغة)إذ أتي الطفل المتلقي يعرف النطق وصار له أي خلل بعد هذه الفترة من السهل تنمية مهارات اللغة لديه, أما أذا أصيب بعد فترة اللغة لإن الفترة في التدريب تطول ويكون الأمل أضعف والله قااادر علي كل شئ !

I have faced this situation more than once in my career as a translator, and most of the times this wasn't my decision to make.
For instant, popular news agencies always prefer literal translation over changing words in order to match the metaphor with it's English equivalent, and the reason for that is that they always try to avoid any mistranslation or changing of the vox-pop opinion.
And if the translator is to find a matching metaphor in the other language, he is always required to put both of them! The matching metaphor is put between - -.
Aside from these news agencies, when the matter is not crucial, the translated expression is always preferred, simply in order for the viewer to grasp the real context of the script.

Translators should always mind honesty and professionalism.
The first necessitates use of the exact equivalent word, and the second requires application of an acceptable limit of manipulation in the final structure.

Avoid literal translation because it makes the text looses its essence and the message will be conveyed in messy way

practically, through my career I can say figuratively translation has a wide scale effectiveness in conveying the idea and content to the readers and beneficiaries, who need the bottom line to the text , unless in some other fields that strongly need the literally translation such as legal, midical, and technical ones, in order to avert any missing or lacks of meaning that possibly shows insufficiency of general text.
Thank You

Any society has its own words and expessions .
For me it is a difficult matter to convey a meaning word to another world!!!! to another life .
I mean Arabic poetry for example .
It will be a fatal deterioration to translate metaphors into words .even if we say : the poet means ....
It will not transport the sensation or the inner emotional / mental state .
There will be a division or "death": body without soul.
A form without a context .
when we talk about literature and morals , translation will be a king of death who does not care for poor or rich , a baby or an old man .all what translation cares for is :boxes of dead words which are ready to be exported to "awaiting consumers" .
From my point of view : "A good translator must have a magical soul"which is not a "common product"

This is a dispute that has been going for centuries in translation, whether to domesticate or foreignize SL or SC expressions.
I personally think it all depends on the nature of the ST and the target readership.
Also, in many cases, the publisher of the work, and unfortunately not the translator, is the one who makes the decision about the general translation strategy of the whole text, and it is usually "domesticating" these culture-specific items.

There is no doubt that each language has its own culture, therefore its own sayings and expressions.
Throughout my career I've been told " don't think in Arabic when speaking in English".Literal translation may be a little bit acceptable from Eng to French or the other way round.
But it would be certainly amiss when translating to arabic.form example: "c'est pas terrible" is an expression in French which means " it's not intrresting".If I literally translate it to arabic , it would be"هذا ليس فظيعا".The meaning has completely changed to the opposite.see?

Literal translation may not be a good idea because the translated text may not be understandable.
It's best to be creative when translating such expressions.

Generally, literal translation is sometimes an option, but it's never a good one! A translator does not only convey words, but also ideas and feelings.