ci è bastato

[mau_mau]

Ciao! Ho un biglietto di auguri e non posso comprendere una parte.. una parte abbastanza importante! si dice...

ci è bastato vederti da lontano per caprire che sei bello, audace, dolce...
ci è bastato vederti da vicino per capire che non ci vediamo molto bene!

Questo è il mio tentativo...

It's one thing to see you from far away to know that you are handsome, daring, lovable...
It's another to see you up close and know that you can't see very well!

non deve essere esatto ma voglio dare a mio padre un'idea generale e non posso trovare la frase "ci è bastato" da nessuno parte ... grazie mille!!!

xxx

 

[pask46]

Do you need to translate it or just get the meaning?

 

[Lazzini]

I think you're close. My attempt would be:

From a distance it's clear that you are handsome (etc.)...
From close up it's clear that we don't see too well!

...or something of the kind.

 

[mau_mau]

I'm just after the general gist of it... I just wanted to check I was along the right lines since the last bit didn't quite sounds right... now i can see I just put it in the wrong person!! Dear me...
Thanks Lazzini... That sounds great!!

 

[Babel.Babel]

My bet, in the second sentence, would be "It was enough to see you up close to learn that we just don't go well together"

 

[pask46]

Ok, the meaning is this, and you got it.
Normally we use "ci è bastato" followed by such words as "un momento/un attimo/un minuto" to mean that "it just took us a second to understand...".
But we can use those words alone, too.
In this case there's no time sense, but the meaning remains: "we just needed to see you from a distance to learn how much you are handsome etc" "we just needed to take a closer look to understand that we need an optician/we don't see very well!"
I think you can easily tranlate "ci è bastato" with "we just needed".
"Bastare" means "to be enough" /"to be sufficient", but the meaning here is similar to need.