cynosure

Isabella Birdの "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan" を読んでいます。季節は梅雨に入ったようです。

The wind and rain were something fearful all that afternoon. I could not ride, so I tramped on foot for some miles under an avenue of pines, through water a foot deep, and with my paper waterproof soaked through, reached Toyoka half drowned and very cold, to shiver over a hibachi in a clean loft, hung with my dripping clothes, which had to be put on wet the next day. By 5 a.m. all Toyoka assembled, and while I took my breakfast, I was not only the "cynosure" of the eyes of all the people outside, but of those of about forty more who were standing in the doma, looking up the ladder. When asked to depart by the house-master, they said, “It’s neither fair nor neighbourly in you to keep this great sight to yourself, seeing that our lives may pass without again looking on a foreign woman;" so they were allowed to remain!

Birdが旅をしたのは明治１０年ですから、外国人しかも女性は非常に珍しく、どこへ行っても大勢の人が見に来ました。"cynosure" of the eyesの "cynosure" は見られる対象に違いないでしょうが、辞書の説明を見ます。

・Oxford English Dictionary: A person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration.: the Queen was the cynosure of all eyes
・Collins English Dictionary: a person or thing that attracts notice, esp because of its brilliance or beauty: Amid the lighter, pastel colors, she was a dramatic highlight; as intended, she was the cynosure of all eyes.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: a person or thing that is so good or beautiful that it attracts a lot of attention: In this respect we hold a special position, because we are the cynosure of all eyes at all times.
この単語も2/23/2013に既に取り上げていました。