Rue Des Quais. (Translation) . Poem by Michael Walker

Langston Hughes worked on a fleet of ships on the Hudson River when he was twenty. He worked his passage as a seaman on a ship to France, aged twenty-two, He knew all about life at sea.
The poem is about dream ships setting sail for a place where the springtime has rare beauty; and about young lads who set sail carrying beautiful women and dreams in their heart, as he does. I found a sense of wonder walking along Quay Street in Auckland, seeing ocean liners in dock, and ferries sailing the Waitemata Harbour.