Poland says goodbye to Nobel prize-winning poet Szymborska

Feb 9, 2012, 13:21 GMT

Warsaw - Thousands of mourners on Thursday paid their respects to Polish poet Wislawa Szymborska, a Nobel prize laureate, as she was buried to the sound of jazz music during a secular funeral at a Krakow cemetery.

'She left us a great gift,' President Bronislaw Komorowski said at the funeral. 'In her poems, she left us the ability to notice those ordinary crumbs of beauty and the joys of the world that are always worthy of wonder.'

Szymborska's ashes were carried in the falling snow to be buried in her family's plot at Krakow's Rakowicki Cemetery. Jazz songs by American singer Ella Fitzgerald, of whom the poet was a fan, played in the background.

Szymborska, known for her ironic and thoughtful verse, died on February 1 aged 88 in Krakow after a long struggle with lung cancer.

The ceremony began at noon at the historic St. Mary's Basilica, which instead of its usual melody to signal the hour, played a melody written to accompany Szymborska's poem Nothing Twice.

In attendance were Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, along with dozens of artists, writers and actors.

Born July 2, 1923, in Bnin, central Poland, Szymborska attended underground lessons after World War II broke out in 1939 and avoided deportation to a Nazi labour camp by working as a railroad employee.

Although her first poems praised communism, her later poetry stayed clear of explicit political messages in favour of universal themes.

Szymborska was known for shying away from the spotlight, and for her reluctance to give interviews.