How do you translate an ablative absolute?

So ablative absolutes can seem scary because they sit there apart from the rest of the sentence, but they're actually super easy! Translating them isn't difficult at all.

They can be translated in 3 different ways - either with a temporal sense (so giving an idea of the time), causal (explaining a reason why something is the way it is) or concessive (a clause showing a concession). 

Temporal ablative absolutes are translated with words like "when", "after" or "once".

Causal ones are translated by words like "because", or "since".

And concessive ones with "although" or "though".

You should choose whatever translation you think fits best, whether it's temporal/causal/concessive. Try them all out and see what sounds best!