<p>Elated and surprised, they told me, dot dot dot," which means [enter english phrase here]. </p>
<p>Is there any problem with one translation having a comma and the other a period? Are both forms of punctuation supposed to go inside the quotes?</p>
<p>Thank You</p>
<p>The way you have it would be OK, including the punctuation. It’s usual, as a courtesy to readers, to italicize foreign words and phrases, so that would make it clearer still. You might also find a more powerful, single-word verb for “told me” and shorten “which means” to “meaning,” or even more direct, just enclose the translation in parens.</p>