The fifth, Masha (Mary) two years old, the one whose birth nearly cost Sónya her life. A weak and sickly child. Body white as milk, curly white hair; big, queer blue eyes, queer by reason of their deep, serious expression. Very intelligent and ugly. She will be one of the riddles; she will suffer, she will seek and find nothing; will always be seeking what is least attainable.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The fifth, Masha (Mary) two years old, the one whose birth nearly cost Sónya her life. A weak and sickly child. Body white as milk, curly white hair; big, queer blue eyes, queer by reason of their deep, serious expression. Very intelligent and ugly. She will be one of the riddles; she will suffer, she will seek and find nothing; will always be seeking what is least attainable." in the context of "Leo Tolstoy, letter to Alexandra Andreyevna Tolstoy, 1872; quoted in Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Ilya Tolstoy, trans. George Calderon (London: Chapman & Hall, 1914), p. 5." to mean that wisdom is timeless.