Jerzy Hordyński was a Polish poet and writer.

He studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, Oriental studies

Oriental studies

Oriental studies is the academic field of study that embraces Near Eastern and Far Eastern societies and cultures, languages, peoples, history and archaeology; in recent years the subject has often been turned into the newer terms of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies...

 and Polish philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

 at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lwow

Lviv University

The Lviv University or officially the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv is the oldest continuously operating university in Ukraine...

. He was one of the best known poets from Lwów. After the city was occupied by the Soviets on 22 September 1939, he returned to his studies. During the German occupation (1941–1944) he published his poems in underground anthologies and illegal papers, and continued his studies at a secret university. He worked as a feeder of lice in Rudolf Weigl

Rudolf Weigl

Professor Rudolf Stefan Weigl was a famous Polish biologist and inventor of the first effective vaccine against epidemic typhus. Weigl founded the Weigl Institute in Lwów, Poland , where he did his vaccine-producing research.Of Austrian ethnic descent, Weigl was born in Přerov, Moravia...

's Institute of Typhus Studies, like another famous Polish poet, Zbigniew Herbert

Zbigniew Herbert

Zbigniew Herbert was an influential Polish poet, essayist, drama writer, author of plays, and moralist. A member of the Polish resistance movement – Home Army during World War II, he is one of the best known and the most translated post-war Polish writers...

.

After Lwów was reoccupied by the Soviets in July 1944 he was arrested and sentenced to the gulag

Gulag

The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...

 for five years, to a camp in the Donbas. He was released after three years and moved to Kraków, where he finished his degree at the Jagiellonian University

Jagiellonian University

The Jagiellonian University was established in 1364 by Casimir III the Great in Kazimierz . It is the oldest university in Poland, the second oldest university in Central Europe and one of the oldest universities in the world....

. In Kraków he wrote for the Tygodnik Powszechny

Tygodnik Powszechny

Tygodnik Powszechny is a Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine, focusing on social and cultural issues. Established in 1945 under the auspices of Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, Jerzy Turowicz was its editor-in-chief until his death in 1999. He was succeeded by priest Adam Boniecki.-History:The...

. His first official volume of poetry, Return to the light was published in 1951. In 1956 he joined the editoral board of "Życie Literackie" where, together with Wisława Szymborska he ran a column entitled "literary mail". In 1961, due to health problems he moved to first Vienna and later Paris (where he studied at the Sorbonne), before finally settling in Rome in 1964. From there he sent in his writings to "Życie Literackie" and "Przekroj".

He was awarded many international awards, among others Gran Premio Italia. His works have been translated into many languages.