The Old Man in the Sea He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf（海湾） Stream（溪流）, and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. In the first forty days a boy had been with him, but after forty days without a fish, the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely, and finally, salao, which is the worst form of unlucky（倒霉的）, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty, and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled（盘绕） lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail（帆） that was furled around the mast（桅）. The sail was patched（补缀） with flower sacks（大袋） and, furled, it looked like the flag（旗） of permanent（永久的） defeat（失败的事实）. The old man was thin and gaunt（憔悴的） with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent（慈善的） skin cancer（癌症） the sun brings from its reflection（反射） on the tropic sea were on his cheeks.

  The blotches ran well down the sides of his face, and his hands had the deep creased（起皱） scars from handling（拿） heavy fish on the cords（细绳）.