Dŏnagan Kkamagui (떠나간 까마귀): A nice children's poem about the Trump White House

Ddŏnagan Kkamagui ("The Crow that Passed by") is a poem by Ri Wan Gi that appeared in the literary magazine Adong Munhak (Children's Literature) in November of 2017.  It is interesting in that it mentions Trump by name and also references his "Make America Great" slogan (강대한 미국을 만들기). Actually, the phrase could more accurately be translated as "Make a Powerful America" but I think they were aiming for the former. This is my first attempt at translating poetry, and I found it unexpectedly difficult, so apologies for the somewhat stilted language.

Many thanks to @FahySandra for finding this poem in a South Korean archive and sending it to me and @NKResearcher for providing the missing stanzas.

The Crow that Passed by

떠나간 까마귀

Ri Wan Gi

Hearing the delicious rumor 

That at the White House there were some tasty corpses

The crow flew from far away.

Settling on the White House roof

He muttered, "The rumors were true,

The corpse smell is ripe."

He flitted back and forth

"Aha, it’s coming from that window."

The crow settled on a nearby branch. 

Within the room, Trump

was making a rambling speech

to his sycophantic aides:

"To make America great,

We must annihilate Korea through war."

"Eh? War?"

The crow, well over a hundred years old,

Witness to numerous battlefields, 

pricked his ears.

"Mr President! All those bastards

Who opposed your war drive have departed."

At the flunky's words

The man called Mr President screeched even louder

"All those shitheads who resigned from the White House,

One by one - they're all maniacs."

The crow nodded his head,

"Seems there were quite a few 'maniacs' there."

One person stepped forward from the side

And spoke up,

"But Mr President, Congress

Is griping that a war with well-armed Korea

Would bring nuclear catastrophe to American soil.

What a bunch of idiots."

The President trembled with rage

"To make America great,

We must wage war

Against those crazy nonsense-spewing bastards."

At Trumps’ bawling, like the chime of a broken gong,

The crow grimaced

"Ow my ears, such a racket!

Crying war, war…

For real, this president is crazy for war."

Right then the plump fellow 

Jumped up, not wanting to be overlooked.

"Mr President! Korea has tested

H-bomb equipped ICBMs

With complete success

Threatening destruction before the UN General Assembly

How can we patch this up?

Even congressmen are holding anti-Trump rallies;

Such a pain in the butt."

Frothing at the mouth, the President stamped about,

"So those bastards 

Don’t want to make America great!

It’s all the busywork of lunatics."

Meanwhile huge crowds

assembled in the streets

Calling down with Trump, who drives sane men mad;

Screaming: Drag forth lunatic Trump, that walking corpse,

Who has plunged America into crisis and danger

The protest column plunged wildly forward

Toward the White House

Suddenly the crow
Who'd been salivating over the corpse smell
Took offense at the racket
"Pfooey, messing with such a rotten corpse, even I'd go nuts
Much as I do enjoy corpses
The stench of such a demented corpse
It's utterly loathsome
Gack, ptooey!

And so he spread his wings
And flew away
From the house of the crazy old lunatic