Breakdown of Pjesnik je posvetio život onomu vječnomu stihu.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
život
life
onaj
that (over there) / the one (who)
posvetiti
to dedicate
pjesnik
poet
vječan
eternal
stih
verse
Questions & Answers about Pjesnik je posvetio život onomu vječnomu stihu.
I normally see onom and vječnom in the dative case. Why do they end in -omu here?
The extra -u at the end of onomu and vječnomu is called a navezak (an optional phonetic extension). In the dative and locative cases for masculine and neuter adjectives or pronouns, the standard ending -om (or -em) can be extended to -omu (or -emu). It doesn't change the meaning at all, but it can make the sentence flow better or sound more elevated and poetic.
Why is the phrase onomu vječnomu stihu in the dative case?
The verb posvetiti (to dedicate) takes a direct object in the accusative case for what is being dedicated (here, život, meaning life), and an indirect object in the dative case for to whom or to what it is dedicated (here, the verse).
Since the pronoun and adjective end in -omu, could the noun stihu also take an optional extension to become stihomu?
No, these optional extensions only apply to adjectives and pronouns. Nouns have fixed endings. The dative singular ending for the masculine noun stih is strictly -u, so it must remain stihu.
The English translation says "dedicated his life", but I don't see a word for "his" in the Croatian sentence. Why is it omitted?
In Croatian, possessive pronouns like svoj or njegov are often dropped when the ownership is obvious from the context. Since it is logically assumed that the poet is dedicating his own life, adding svoj before život is unnecessary, though not incorrect.
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