journal submission etiquette question

Dear all,

Just a quick advice question from a long-time lurker, new academic. I'm a first-year doctoral student at a UK university in a humanities field. During the viva voce examination for my earlier master's this summer at that same university, the external examiner (an academic I particularly admire and respect) was quite kind about two shorter pieces of coursework I'd done and suggested that they might be a good fit for a particular specialized journal in my field.

As I edit the first one, I'm wondering two things
-The cover letter - should I mention that I was encouraged to submit to X journal by Y professor, or would this be seen as obnoxious and name-droppy?

-Translation issues. My (literary/theological) article deals with two texts, one in the original French, one in the translated English (from Russian). I was advised by my supervisor to deal with them both in translation (the journal I'm submitting to is neither a French- or Russian-specific journal); I've thus used a published translation for the French novel I'm working on, noting the original French or supplying my own translation (noted) when the English translation proved insufficient, as well as for the Russian. Am I doing the right thing here, or should I be providing both Russian and French in the original?