Synkroniciti is proud to welcome back Turkish American playwright and writer Burcu Seyben with “Broken Mirror: On Home and Language.” In this poetic essay, arranged into reflective fragments, Burcu examines the role language has played in her life and how Turkish, English, and German have, at different points, given her varying degrees of safety and isolation. A teacher’s Turkish spelling mistake was her first experience with the contentious nature of language. Her father advised her not to correct the teacher.
““If you point out your teacher’s mistake, you’ll always be on watch.” The next day, silent. Friends didn’t know, teacher didn’t either. Realized language could make me lonely. Silence became my communication. Stopped answering questions, especially when I knew the answers.”
English provided her with a shield against her parent’s disintegrating marriage and a way out of Turkey and into American graduate school, but also separated her from her parents and culture. She speaks of her journey back and her reconciliation with Turkish, and of leaving again for America after the earthquake of 1999. She also speaks of the language conflict experienced by her son. Language carries so much personality, prejudice, and coded knowledge and it interacts with our identity and sense of home in unpredictable ways.
Burcu’s voice is vulnerable and discerning and she has a deep curiosity about human nature and how we relate to each other. Read “Broken Mirror: On Home and Language” in Synkroniciti’s “Patterns” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
In a certain grade, Burcu was asked, “Do you learn more about the world through traveling or reading?” She had to choose a side, but even though Burcu doesn’t remember which stance she took, she recalls thinking that the question wasn’t the best debate prompt. She believed that one could read while traveling, making it one of the best ways to learn about different places and cultures. This idea may have inspired her a bit too much, leading her to become an endless wanderer, exploring new homes, languages, and ways of being. Whether through academic or creative expression, in Turkish or English, through plays, essays, and sometimes poems, Burcu Seyben hopes that no one will ask her to choose sides again, as she doesn’t see the point.