Milan Kundera, Czech-French writer: “Being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground”
Have you ever tried to live in another country but found certain conditions made it almost impossible to be accepted?
When Milan Kundera wrote that “Being in a foreign country means walking a tightrope high above the ground,” he was not just reaching for literal drama. He was actually describing his own life.
Who was Milan Kundera?
Born in Brno in 1929, Kundera witnessed the Nazi occupation and later the suffocating grip of Soviet-backed communism. After the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, his books were banned and he eventually settled in France in 1975, later becoming a French citizen. Exile for him turned out to be a daily condition.
Kundera’s metaphor captures the precariousness of displacement in a clearly understandable way. A tightrope walker must maintain constant awareness. One false step, and balance is lost. Living abroad often feels the same. Language and culture, as I’ve found on my own travels, can become both a bridge and a barrier. Humor especially can misfire with those around reconsidering your status. Irony is another aspect of human interaction that can struggle to travel well. Even your gestures can create uncertainty.
Tightrope walking: a challenge to ovecome
In novels such as The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera explored how identity shifts under political and personal pressure. Characters drift between countries, lovers, and ideologies, never fully anchored. The tightrope is not only geographic. It stretches between memory and reinvention.
Yet, as those of us that have succeeded in foreign lands can testify, the image is not just a bleak one. Tightrope walking is an act of immense skill, one that demands focus, adaptability and, of course, courage. To live in another country is to develop new senses. You become more attentive to nuance and more alert to the context you find yourself in. At least you do if you work hard to achieve a sense of belonging.
High above the ground, there is a great deal of risk. But Kundera understood that it also gave you a very different perspective.
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