Exegesis:

aphete autēn (cf. 2.5) ‘leave her alone’: Arndt & Gingrich suggest ‘let go,’ ‘tolerate,’ while Lagrange prefers the meaning ‘let her do it.’ In light of the context, however, the Revised Standard Version is to be preferred (cf. Swete).

ti autē kopous parechete; ‘why are you causing her trouble?’ ‘why are you giving her difficulty?’: Moulton & Milligan give examples from the papyri of the use of this phrase meaning ‘cause trouble,’ ‘bother.’

kopos (only here in Mark) ‘trouble,’ ‘difficulty,’ ‘toil.’

parechō (only here in Mark) ‘to present,’ ‘to furnish,’ ‘to cause.’

kalon ergon ‘a good work,’ ‘a beautiful deed,’ ‘a noble thing’: the adjective here indicates “what is morally good, with a nuance of nobility and beauty” (Lagrange).

kalos (cf. 4.8) ‘beautiful,’ ‘fine,’ ‘fitting.’

ergon (cf. 13.34) ‘deed,’ ‘task,’ ‘action.’

ērgasato (only here in Mark) ‘she worked,’ ‘she performed,’ ‘she accomplished.’

en emoi ‘to me’: the preposition here indicates the object to whom something is done.

Translation:

Let her alone is sometimes translated rather concretely, e.g. ‘do not touch her’ (Cashibo-Cacataibo), an expression which implies avoidance of molestation or disturbance.

Beautiful thing requires recasting in some languages, e.g. ‘what she has done to me is beautiful’ or ‘it is very good what she has done to me.’

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of Mark. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1961. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .