翻 is incredibly versatile: 翻书 (flip pages), 翻译 (translate), 翻身 (turn over in bed / turn one's life around), 翻脸 (turn hostile). The core idea is always 'turning/flipping.'
Right side is the feather radical, two wing-feathers drawn side by side. It is the indexing radical and supplies the action: a bird flips its wings to roll, dive, or turn over in flight. Joins 翅, 翼, 翔, 翘 in the wing-and-flight family of characters.
Left side 番 supplies the sound - fān is a perfect tone match. 番 itself layers 釆 (animal paw-print) over 田 (field), originally picturing a paw track turning over the soil, which dovetails neatly with the 'flip, turn' meaning. Same phonetic series as 蕃, 幡, 藩.
