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I don’t want an automated solution.
When you have to translate a program from a language to another, what do you do? You prefer to rewrite it from the beginning or copy and paste it and change only what need to be changed?
What’s the best choice?
It depends on
the goals (quick hack for one time use? long-lived production project for work?)
the resources I have (how many man-hours? Test suit and/or functional spec for old code? familiarity with both languages?)
most importantly, differences between the languages. Both the conceptual (OO? functional? reflection? control structures?) as well as available libraries.
Please note that this bullet is not as trivial as it seems – this depends in large part on how idiomatic the original program is – as an example, some people write very “C-like” Perl code (e.g. using C control flow and very C++ like OO design) which can be trivially copied to C or C++, and some people write incredibly intricate idiomatic Perl using functional programming, closures and reflective capabilties; which can’t be obviously translated into C/C++.
Also, quality of the original code. E.g. good program will have separated business logic, usually expressed in standard configuration and control flow that’s easier to directly clone.
E.g. translating from PHP to Perl for a hack job, you can often start out with copying, since many PHP constructs can be 1-to-1 mapped onto equivalent Perl constructs (just take your pick of Perl templating web library). The resulting code won’t be GOOD Perl but will be Good Enough for some purposes.
On the other hand, translating, say, LISP code to Java, you’re better off just translating the original code into a functionality specification and re-write from scratch. Your example of Python and JavaScript is probably in the same box.
Usually you have two languages that share at least some concepts (e.g. both have OO, and some imperative control structures) and thus you end up with some combination of the two approaches – parts of the code can be “thoughtlessly” translated, parts need to be re-written from scratch.
The more of the second (complete rewrite) approach, the better quality idiomatic and powerful code you end up with.