I am currently trying to translate various song lyrics from Japanese for
practice and would like to stay as close as possible to the original meaning
of the sentences. Currently, I'm trying to translate the well-known シティポップ
song 「真夜中のドア～Stay with me」 by 松原みき. The line I'm asking about is the
following:

> 真夜中のドアをたたき 帰らないでと泣いた

From what I understand these are two separate sentences, which I would
translate as

> In the dead of night I was hitting (your) door  
>  'Come back' I cried

What confuses me is the first sentence: Since 叩き (=hitting, beating) is a noun
the sentence is missing a だ, but I guess that's just because it's spoken
Japanese. However, **why** did the writer choose to describe the action of
banging on the door with a noun instead of using a verb: 真夜中のドアを叩いてた. Is there
a difference in meaning between these two? Have I simply translated the text
incorrectly? Strictly speaking, "AをB だ" should probably be translated as A =
B, but then I can't make any sense of the text. You can listen and read the
lyrics [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuU2YHtxMik).
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2022-07-15T22:21:16.887
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question
translation verbs nouns
Why does this sentence end in a noun instead of a verb? (Song lyrics)