Choices:
“It’s the fish that sailors fear above all others . . . .”
“When Stefano Roi was twelve years old . . . .”
“‘Despite my forty years, . . . I believe I still have good eyesight.”
". . . as soon as he was a man, he found a dignified and well-paying position at an emporium . . . ."
The irony in The Colomber by Dino Buzzati is in this detail:
“It’s the fish that sailors fear above all others . . . .”
They believed that whoever saw this fish is doomed to die. The fish will follow the person all the days of his life.
It was ironic because at the end of the story, it was revealed that the fish was only after Stefano because it was tasked to give him a pearl for good luck.