# 'Nyakadra'



## Nghi

In the song 'Vámpír' by Péterfy and Love Band, one of the lyrics goes,
  "Meleg vér folyik lassan a nyakadra".
 ("Hot blood flows slowly onto(?) your neck")

I was curious about the post-position '-ra' used with 'nyaka'. It seems to indicate blood flowing _onto_ the neck, as opposed to in, or into, or through.
  Is it only used so that the line rhymes with the rest of the song, or is there an alternative meaning to using '-ra' that I am not aware of?
  Of course, it is also possible that the song's 'victim' has already been bitten, and his/her blood is flowing out of the body and onto the neck...


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## Ateesh6800

You are right: the victim (probably a man) has just been bitten by the "former vampire", the woman who sings the song (_"Előző életemben denevér voltam; nappal aludtam, éjjel éltem én..."_). His own blood oozes out onto the surface of his own neck. _"Nyakadra"_ is _"onto your neck"_, and one of the situations when this postfix is used is when it implies _"onto the surface of something"_. There is no poetic license here for the sake of the rhyme.

She _could _say _"nyakadból"_, but that would mean something entirely different: _"blood is flowing/dripping/oozing from your neck"_ or simply _"your neck is bleeding"_. Granted, this is what 90% of the people say: he's bleeding, blood is oozing from his neck (_"vérzik a nyaka"_, _"folyik a vér a nyakából"_). However, she is a vampire, she is used to this happening, and therefore she gives a more detached, partly objective, partly poetic, more subtle description. _"Meleg vér folyik lassan a nyakadra"_ is a cinematographic close-up, really (with all the associations of _"meleg"_ and _"lassan"_, plus the focus on the surace of the skin just bitten).

So, she has just bitten him and drunk his blood, and now just a bit of (_warm_) blood is oozing (_slowly_) (out of the punctures left by the fangs) _onto (the surface of) his own neck_.

The story in my mind (but this is subjective) is this: former lovers meet accidentally; she claims him (_you're mine/your blood belongs to me_); she tries to involve him in an almost symbolic act without getting involved too deeply (just a single bite, i.e. let's just fool around/make out/kiss and whatever without actually forming a couple again); therefore she tries to do it in a way that does not leave too many marks (she wants to bite him _"titokban"_, giving him a hickie/kissing bruise where it is not too visible), so there's only blood-sucking (using the other person) and no seduction (she want the rush of the excitement and maybe a free drink or two but not a relationship proper), _"mert úgysem kell belőled más"_ (_"'cause I don't want anything else from you anyway"_).

Obviously, Bori sings a song from the perspective of this blood-sucking female party animal but she is not necessarily identical with the character. 

So you're right: the  song's 'victim' has just been bitten and his blood is flowing  out of his own body and _onto his own neck_.


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## Zsanna

Hello all and welcome, Nghi to our Forum!

I agree with Ateesh's nice little analysis, maybe adding just a little impression: by describing what's happening (= blood is flowing slowly onto (t)his neck) the fact that there is an actual wound and some sort of an agressive act preceeding it is somehow "nicely forgotten". 
Possibly (as explained above) because the whole thing is symbolic and no harm was really meant (among others things). 
There is an obvious contradiction there but then this is part of the attraction to such themes.


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## Nghi

Okay.
Köszönöm szépen! 

You mentioned associations of the words 'meleg' and 'lassan'. (I really hope I don't get scolded for this...)
Could you elaborate on this? I know in English, these words could have a sexual cannotation - is that what you meant?


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## Ateesh6800

(1) This is a legitimate question (I think) as you are requesting clarification on my answer.
(2) I wrote this: "with all the associations of "meleg" and "lassan"...". What I had in mind was the associations surrounding the phrase "meleg vér": this is both "a person who is alive", "a person who has emotions" (in contrast with "hidegvérű, hideg vérrel" or "cold-blooded"), and, of course, there is a slight sexual overtone (just being intimately close to another person is almost always described by some version of the adjective "warm" in all languages I know). On the other hand, "lassú" or "slow" is also a similarly charged word. We're not talking about a vampire who's in the rush of satisfying her thirst by quickly sucking out the blood and moving on. We're talking about a vampire who takes her time observing the warm blood slowly oozing out of the punctured skin of the neck. She's a connoisseur engaged in an intimate, loving, or at least erotic act. -- Mind you, eating pieces of someone else's biology has been used before as a literary metaphore of (holy) communion.
(3) In other contexts, the Hungarian word "meleg" also has a direct sexual connotation as far as it is the preferred term for "gay" in Hungarian. However, I am pretty sure that this is NOT in play in this case.


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## Nghi

Thank you so much!


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## Ateesh6800

Any time.


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