he aquí ?

Question

Is "he aquí" ("Behold", "Here is...") just an idiom, or is there some way to explain its meaning?

Answer 1

"He aquí"

Where have you seen it?. "He aquí" is like saying: aquí está. It is a bit diffcult to explain. It is similar to "voilá", "here you have the explanation", "here is the explanation", "here you have what you were expecting", "here is what you were looking for" and so on. It depends on the situation. Which situation is it?.

Also, I can remember have seen it in literature from fifteenth century. "He aquí Maria Fernanda. Aquí viene... Escondámonos".

They were talking about her and she appears. Something like that. I hope you can understand.

Also, you can see it in a documentary. The person who is talking says: he aquí una leona cuidando de sus cachorros.

He is pointing out or showing something that people are seeing in the documentary.

It appears a bunch of times in the Spanish version of "The Little Prince" when the narrator is showing his drawings. - Luciente, Dec 17, 2009

Nice explanation! :-) - chaparrito, Dec 17, 2009

Answer 2

It appears a bunch of times in the Spanish version of "The Little Prince" when the narrator is showing his drawings.

It is also used extensively in the Bible. (129 places in the RVR-95 version)

Answer 3

he aquí una leona cuidando de sus cachorros.

"Here you have/see a lioness guarding/protecting her cubs." would be a common formulation in English.

In French, "voici" would (I think) be preferable to "voilá" (in this case).

Answer 4

"he " is an aux verb, ie: "Yo he visto el cielo." = I have seen the sky.

I would guess this term is supposed to be "Hay aquí." = Here there is....."

Not an auxiliary in this construction. - samdie, Dec 17, 2009