Jerzy S. Sito, an outstanding poet, playwright, translator of Shakespeare’s plays and authority on the Elizabethan theatre, has died in Warsaw. He was 77 years-old.

After the outbreak of World War II, Sito’s father was arrested and subsequently killed by the Soviets, and his remaining family deported deep inside Soviet Russia.

As a result, Jerzy S. Sito spent his youth in Kazachstan (until 1942) and India (1942-1948), before settling in Britain. He gained a degree in construction engineering in London and soon devoted himself to literature.

Sito made his poetic debut in 1954. Five years later he returned to Poland, where he pursued a wide-ranging career, as a poet, theatre critic and translator of English poetry and drama.

Many Polish theatre companies produced Shakespeare’s plays in Sito’s translations.

In 1976 Jerzy S. Sito signed a letter of protest against the planned changes in the Polish Constitution and in the 1980s was an active member of the democratic opposition.

After the collapse of communism, in the early 1990s, he served as Poland’s Ambassador to Denmark. (mk)