Wisława Szymborska was a Polish poet, essayist and translator. Based at Kraków since the age of eight, she had her fair share of trouble because of untimely death of her father and German occupation of Poland. Although she started writing poems at the age of five and had her debut in Kraków newspaper at the age of 22, circumstances did not allow her to publish her first book until she was 29. Her first book, which was to be published in 1949, did not pass censorship as it did not reflect the communist ideology. Therefore, she changed her style and her next two books followed the party line. Later she regretted her stance and admitted that it was a mistake. With time, her works became more mature and became famous for ironic precision. Paradox, contradiction and understatements were other hallmarks of her works. She was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature. Described as the ‘Mozart of Poetry’ Szymborska kept on writing poems almost till her death.