Speaking in Tongues

Speaking in Tongues is an attempt to unify three disparate poetry suites, written originally in Spanish, Mandarin, and Turkish, and then self-translated into English. The Spanish language poems — Autobiografia — rewrites twenty years of the poet’s life into fragments on race, queerness, identity, and growing up between cultures. The Mandarin poems — 客然脑说 — fuses the Confucian dialectic structure with Bhakti, as the poet responds to the existential questions posed to him. The Turkish language suite — Seyahatname — appropriates Evliya Çelebi's infamous travelogue into a reimagination of the national narratives of the eighteen countries the poet considers home.