How do you translate 'de encima' in the phrase 'No le quitaba la vista de encima '?

Question

I saw the phrase de encima in a children's story book, "Cerote, el Rey del Gallinero by Alfredo Goméz Cerdá, on page 25", within the sentence "no le quitaba la vista de encima". All the big dictionaries I looked up do not have similar examples in this context. I found examples such as "me saqué ese problema de encima" which is translated as "I got the problem out of the way" and "por lo menos te has sacado ese peso de encima", which means "at least you've got that weight off your mind". These translations when applied to "de encima" in the sentence I found do not make any sense. Can someone help?

• Great question. - --Mariana-- Sep 6, 2009

Answer 1

It falls to me like a style of speech thing. The sentence is "don't take your eyes off of him" (as you are probably aware). Breaking down the sentence doesn't help at all. Think of sayings we have in english that when broken down make no sense. Spanish is no different.

Answer 2

Hola Pierre,

Try the following translation for encima de in your sentence

Encima de - upon, on

Like John said, this would translate to something like don't take your eyes off of him Although in the imperfect tense this would probably be something along the lines of he didn't take his eyes off of him or he didn't let him out of sight

Answer 3

sorry, cannot help you

Answer 4

encima es como over you, me, they etc. no me la quite de encima, i can't take off over me algo asi