# attraverso le sue parole



## robertino

Ciao a tutti! Sto traducendo una lettera per una amica di famiglia, ma ho alcuni problemi:

"Mi ha fatto piacere conoscere la sua famiglia _attraverso le sue parole_"

L'ho tradotta con: "я была очень рада познакомиться с вашей семьей при ваших словах", ma non sono sicuro sia giusto. Consigli?
robi


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## Jana337

A wild guess - посредством ваших слов.


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## Etcetera

Sorry, but both при ваших словах and посредством ваших слов sound pretty strange to me. Well, the first one is possible, but only in specific contexts. 
Could you please explain to me what's meant in this sentence? If the meaning is that the girl didn't meet the family herself, then it's possible to say по вашему рассказу: Я была очень рада познакомиться с вашей семьей по вашему рассказу. Still, such sentence sounds a bit odd.


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## robertino

Well, as someone suggested me, I should have done this in English in the first place, rather than in Italian!
This woman never met her russian friend's family, but she has read about it in the last letter, and now she wants to say something like "I was glad to meet Your family through Your words/letter". Actually, this italian woman wrote some strange sentences in Italian as well, let's say she's not much of a writer...
(Sorry for the poor English  )
I like the "по вашему рассказу", though, do you think it would be ok to express such a meaning?
Thank you guys!


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## Etcetera

Yes, по вашему рассказу conveys exactly the meaning you need.
It's also possible to say Я очень рада, что благодаря вашему рассказу смогла познакомиться с вашей семьей. This sentence is a bit longer, but it sounds more naturally.


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## robertino

I'll use the long one, if you say it sounds more naturally.
Thanks a lot


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## Etcetera

You're welcome, Robertino.


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## Ptak

Etcetera said:


> Я была очень рада познакомиться с вашей семьей по вашему рассказу. Still, such sentence sounds a bit odd.


Yes, it's odd.
But I think "по ваш*им* рассказ*ам*" is much better.

_Я была очень рада познакомиться с Вашей семьей ("узнать Вашу семью" is better) по вашим рассказам._


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## Etcetera

Ptak said:


> Yes, it's odd.
> But I think "по ваш*им* рассказ*ам*" is much better.
> 
> _Я была очень рада познакомиться с Вашей семьей ("узнать Вашу семью" is better) по вашим рассказам._


I assumed that there was only one letter and only one description of the family. So I suggested what I suggested.


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## Ptak

Etcetera said:


> I assumed that there was only one letter and only one description of the family.


We can't understand it from "attraverso le sue parole"


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## Etcetera

But we can understand it from Robertino's post #4.


robertino said:


> This woman never met her russian friend's family, but she has read about it *in the last letter* <...>


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## papillon

Another possibility is to use the word *заочно *as in

Я была рада заочно познакомиться с вашей семьёй...
After all, *заочно* in this context means just that: не при личной встрече, а по описанию, по рассказу.


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## Etcetera

I considered this possibility, Papillon, but thought it to be too formal for a friendly letter.


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## Ptak

Etcetera said:


> But we can understand it from Robertino's post #4.


Yes! My bad


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## cyanista

My vote goes to *заочно*.


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## Crescent

Hello to all. 

I was also thinking about this, and must admit that I don't use ''заочно'' very often, or...to be precise - I don't use it at all (since I hardly even understand what it meant until now.. ) but my suggestion, however silly, would be: _непосредственно_.

So your entire phrase would read:" _Я была очень радо непосредственно познакомиться с Вашей семьей..."
_
I have to admit that this still sounds very odd to me - but taking into consideration that the original meaning to the phrase is slightly unusual to start with, I think this should do okay.


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## Etcetera

No! Непосредственно may mean just the opposite -mehat the woman have had the opportunity to actually meet the family!
And, quite frankly, I wouldn't use непосредственно in even such a context, лично would sound more appropriate.


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## Ptak

Of course!
"Непосредственно" doesn't mean "attraverso le sue parole", it means exactly the opposite.


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## Crescent

Etcetera said:


> No! Непосредственно may mean just the opposite -mehat the woman have had the opportunity to actually meet the family!
> And, quite frankly, I wouldn't use непосредственно in even such a context, лично would sound more appropriate.



Thanks, Etcetera, for the correction! But I must admit - I'm slightly confused now.. I thought ''непосредственно'' was..*looks it up in the dictionary*

 Okay, sorry! I see now! I really got everything terribly, terribly confused! 
It's funny that, how I've spent my entire life thinking this word meant ''indirectly'' and it actually means completely the opposite.. Oh, dear. 
Thanks again for your correction, and please forgive me for my very silly suggestion!
 I've learnt something very important today.


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## Crescent

Ptak said:


> Of course!
> "Непосредственно" doesn't mean "attraverso le sue parole", it means exactly the opposite.



Hhm.. I don't know any Italian (except for ''Ciao'') but from my Spanish and my French, I think I can almost get the literal meaning of this phrase..
Let's see: judging from the Spanish ''_a través de su palabra_'' and the French ''à travers de sa parole'', I wonder if the Italian phrase means literally ''throughout (or through) his/her word''..?
That then fits in really well with the sense that the Russian is supposed to convey..


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## Ptak

Crescent said:


> Hhm.. I don't know any Italian (except for ''Ciao'') but from my Spanish and my French, I think I can almost get the literal meaning of this phrase..


attraverso le Sue parole = "через ваши слова", т.е. *с ваших слов*.


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## Etcetera

Crescent said:


> Thanks again for your correction, and please forgive me for my very silly suggestion!


Never mind. We all make mistakes. Let me tell you someday what mistakes I happen to make in front of my class.


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