Former Solidarity leader Lech Walesa reportedly invited Natalie Cole and Mick Jagger to his, but another, lesser-known Polish Nobel Prize winner is spending her birthday in the privacy that earned her the nickname "the Greta Garbo of European poetry," according to dpa. Wislawa Szymborska turns 85 on July 2, but given her modesty she's more likely to spend a quiet evening in Krakow with friends than throw a bash on a par with her fellow laureate. Ever since she took the stage in Stockholm to deliver the shortest speech in the award's history, Szymborska has become known for her love of privacy and avoidance of the media. She skipped the traditional crowning ceremony in Sweden and opted out of a book signing and poetry reading. There was also a letter to the Polish Press Agency asking the media if she could take a break because she needed a rest after numerous interviews following her win. Since Szymborska's last book was released in 2005, fans have had to make do with various re-prints and collections of her older poetry. Slim volumes of her ironic, concise poems are now readily available in Poland and around the world, but her work was hard to find when she received the Nobel in 1996. It was difficult to get copies in Polish bookstores back then and Szymborska's lawyer had said the poet didn't want to flood the market with her previous works. She was virtually unknown to the Swedish public and abroad, too. German reporters were out of luck when the prize was announced and the recipient's poetry couldn't be found. One critic said it was a scandal to give the Nobel "to a poet that no-one has heard of." But most felt it was well-deserved. Late Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz said "the high ranking of Polish poetry in the world has been confirmed," while another playwright said that "sometimes there is justice in the world." Born near Poznan in 1923, Szymborska made her poetic debut with I am Looking for a Word, which was published in a Polish daily. Her early work has been called socialist realism and there were poems with titles like Lenin, or For the Youth that Builds Nowa Huta. But Szymborska later grew disillusioned with politics and renounced her earlier work. Her poetry stays clear of political messages in favour of universal themes like philosophy, lost love, memory and history. Praised for her irony and philosophical depth, she has spoken volumes in a limited number of words. And although her life's work numbers less than 300 poems, many of them linger for years in the thoughts of her readers. "Szymborska keeps a certain distance and is highly discreet," Milosz once said. "She doesn't tell you about her life. It's interesting that her poetry is such a success in view of the fashion for subjective poetry, in which readers are tortured with one's experiences."
