Exegesis:
aggareuousin (only here in Mark) ‘they impressed (into service),’ ‘they forced’: the verb is a Persian loanword, and refers to the right enjoyed by the occupation troops of impressing people into service for the purpose of carrying loads or performing other services.
paragonta tina Simōna Kurēnaion ‘a passerby, a certain Simon of Cyrene’ (cf. Goodspeed, The Modern Speech New Testament, Manson).
paragō (cf. 1.16) ‘to pass by,’ ‘to go along.’
Simōna Kurēnaion ‘Simon Cyrenean’: the name indicates the man was a Jew, from Cyrene, the capital city of the North African district of Cyrenaica.
erchomenon ap’ agrou (cf. 5.14) ‘coming in from the country,’ and not ‘coming in from the field.’
hina arē ton stauron autou ‘that he should carry his cross’: hina indicates the content of the command implied in the verb aggareuō.
airō (cf. 8.34) ‘carry,’ ‘lift up and carry along’: a man condemned to die by crucifixion was forced to carry the cross-piece (the patibulum) to the place of execution.
Translation:
This verse, despite its clear meaning in English, contains a number of syntactic problems when translated into some languages. In the first place, between the object a passerby and the verb expression with which it goes, namely, to carry his cross, it is often quite impossible to interpose so much which is explanatory: (1) an appositive construction consisting of a man’s name; (2) a description of what he is doing; and (3) his relationship to Alexander and Rufus, men who were evidently well known to the Christian community to which this gospel was being addressed. Because of the syntactic difficulties imposed by this type of arrangement, some languages require considerable recasting of the word order, e.g. ‘Simon, a man from Cyrene country, was passing along as he came in from the fields. He was the father of Alexander and Rufus. The soldiers forced Simon to carry Jesus’ cross.’ In Navajo the verb compel must be translated by an explicit description of what happened, e.g. ‘they said, Carry this cross; and they pushed him to it.’
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 .