So there are a cast of characters plus a narrator, a kind of chorus figure, in this case a kind of genderless speaker. This person stands apart from the others on stage and tells a story, makes comments, introduces action, etc., like in Greek plays and in Shakespeare. Below the poem in its final form is a kind of translation of the ideas.
[the poem begins]
Unenviable me--my cry of woe--
a choral voice no words to sow.
Without words direct from others?
S/he, that is me, left with druthers.
No wise insights to impart,
from stories! that'd be their start.
Time has passed and passes now,
like waves wash'd against life's prow.
Seasons come and seasons go:
We know not what we would know.
Enviable I, the Winter's Tale, its choral voice,
could accelerate time anon apace.
I would try such a narrative trick
and eclipse my dear heroine's shtick.
But only she can say what went and passed,
so better that I this ditty leave--at last.
I yield the stage to our only sage.
Johnnie's words let this story wage.
[end of poem]
This is translation, but the poem itself is better and more than this.
Unenviable me--my cry of woe--
[I feel sorry for me. I am complaining.]
a choral voice no words to sow.
[I am like a narrator with no words to say.]
Without words direct from others?
[I ask the question about not having words from other people.]
S/he, that is me, left with druthers.
[Without those words, I, genderless, have only my preferences about what to say.]
No wise insights to impart,
[I have nothing wise to say or teach.]
from stories! that'd be their start.
[It is from experience or stories we hear, that is how one gets something to say.]
Time has passed and passes now,
[Time goes on.]
like waves wash'd against life's prow.
[Life is like a boat at sea with waves that bump against the front of it.]
Seasons come and seasons go:
[More time passes now measured in seasons.]
We know not what we would know.
[And still we have nothing to say, or do not know what to say . . .]
Enviable I, the Winter's Tale, its choral voice,
[I am envious of the narrator (chorus) in Shakespeare's Winter's Tale.]
could accelerate time anon apace.
[He or she could speed up the narrative by summarizing details.]
I would try such a narrative trick
[If I could, I would try the same trick in storytelling.]
and eclipse my dear heroine's shtick.
[I would do this by shortening what my heroine has to say, or summarize what has happened that we didn't see or hear on stage. Her shtick (Yiddish) is her story that is very familiar to her to re-tell.]
But only she can say what went and passed,
[Only she is able to say what happened to her.]
so better that I this ditty leave--at last.
[So I had better stop my little song, this poem--it must be boring for you.]
I yield the stage to our only sage.
[I am stopping, will leave the stage of this play, and will give it to the only one who can speak with authority.]
Johnnie's words let this story wage.
[Let her, Johnnie, use her power to struggle to tell the story in her words.]
At this point the novel-drama of Johnnie Passnstyle continues in the heroine's words and in verbatim conversations that she is able to quote exactly (a talent she has).
