Exegesis:

ho huios … tou anthrōpou (cf. 2.10) ‘the Son of man.’

hupagei ‘he goes’: here the verb is used with obvious reference to death.

kathōs gegraptai (cf. 1.2; 9.12) ‘as it is written,’ ‘even as Scripture says.’

ouai (cf. 13.17) ‘woe!’ ‘alas!’: not a curse, but a cry of commiseration.

di’ hou ‘by whom,’ ‘through whose instrumentality.’

kalon (cf. 4.8) ‘good’ here used in the comparative sense, ‘better.’ Though the verb eimi ‘to be’ is not part of the genuine text, it is clearly implied: the whole conditional clause ei ouk egennēthē ho anthrōpos ekeinos ‘if that man had not been born’ is the subject of the sentence, and kalon is the predicate nominative, in the neuter gender, agreeing with the gender of the subject. The comparative ‘better’ implies, ‘It were better that that man had not been born than that he had been born!’

egennēthē (only here in Mark) ‘he was born.’

Translation:

Goes can be very badly translated, since in some instances it has been found to mean nothing more than ‘goes away’ or ‘goes on a journey.’ If there is no other alternative one can translate as ‘goes to his death’ (Tzeltal).

For the use of the Son of man as a first person reference, see 2.10.

It is written is in many languages an obscure type of construction which would have no implication of ‘the Scriptures.’ Accordingly, one may translate ‘as the Scriptures say about him’ or ‘as the words are written about him’ (or ‘me’).

For the rendering of passages beginning with woe see the translation of alas 13.17. In Amganad Ifugao this type of idiom is rendered as ‘that man will suffer.’

By whom the Son of man is betrayed may, where necessary, be recast as an active, e.g. ‘who betrays the Son of man.’

The construction better for that man if … is quite complex in many languages. This is especially true in those languages which do not have a closely parallel type of comparative construction. As a result, a number of alternatives must be employed: ‘that man would have an advantage if he had not been born,’ ‘that man would have a better lot if he had not been born,’ or ‘it would be counted good for that man if he had not been born.’

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 .