Songs from the Slums

Cokesbury Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1935. First Edition. Hardcover (Original Cloth). Very Good Condition/No Dust Jacket. yellow end-papers; foreword, contents list & introduction to front followed by these poems recalling the author's poverty as a young boy in Japan; Kagawa wrote these poems when he was a consumptive boy living in the slums of Japan. Surrounded by hideous things - plague, stench, disease - he sees children kicked naked into the streets; a little girl he loves sold. When put into prison as an agitator, the stars shining through iron bars are his only friends. A tiny one rescued from professional baby-killers and dying in his arms, flutters back to life when she feels his tears upon her face. Visions come of the things god will do through him. At times despair overwhelms, tears flow in floods when he fears that human love is shutting him away from God. But there is ecstasy at last when he stands in the sunshine before a little hut, hand in hand with his bride, and "Our glad souls fly To the scarlet sky, Wing to wing; ah, the only voice that can call us home Is the cry of the poor we have left in the slums!" Biography of the poet at the rear. Size: 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. 96 pages. Binding is tight, covers and spine fully intact. Previous owner's signature in ink inside rear cover. Gilt titles spine & front. black cloth; illustrated by b/w. line drawings. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Poetry; Poems; Japan; 1900-1920; Biography & Autobiography. Inventory No: 4195. .