How does Japanese poetry speak across centuries and even millennia? How did ancient poetry help Japanese Americans survive their imprisonment during World War II?

Vancouver authors and translators Michael Freiling and Satsuki Takinawa will explore different forms of historical Japanese verse during a talk called “Japanese Poetry and the Roots of Resilience” at 2 p.m. Sept. 13 at the Vancouver Community Library, 901 C St.

Last month Freiling and Takinawa published “One Hundred Poems From Old Japan,” a new translation of the classic “Hyakunin Isshu” (“A Hundred Poems by a Hundred Poets”), an anthology that features pieces from seventh and eighth century Japan. The “Hyakunin Isshu” is widely read in Japan to this day.

Last year Freiling and Takinawa published a volume of senryu, a Japane

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