EC president sends condolences after death of Nobel prize winner

photo - PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk

In a message addressed to President Bronislaw Komorowski, the president of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso wrote that Europe has lost one of its greatest writers and intellectuals.

“Szymborska’s unique contribution to European culture is undisputable. We shall all miss her sense of humour, irony, modesty, her delicate reflection on the realities of life and her talent to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary,” Barroso wrote.

The American movie director Woody Allen, whose films were greatly admired by Wisława Szymborska, told the Polish Press Agency that she was one of the few poets who were able to reflect on both the tragic and the comical side of life.

Professor Luigi Marinelli of La Sapienza University in Rome stressed that Szymborska’s poetry is accessible to all.

“She did not give ready-made answers but posed questions, over and over again,” he said.

The Russian daily Kommiersant writes in its Internet edition that Szymborska’s poetry started to be translated into Russia still before the collapse of the Soviet Union, despite her dissident views. Among the translators of her poetry was the great poet Anna Akhmatova.

Wisława Szymborska died in her sleep at her home in Krakow. She was 88 years-old. (mk/pg)