Δεν κουβεντιάζεται αυτός ο άνθρωπος.

English Translation

Don’t get anywhere near that man.

Literally, the Greek translates to something like “This man doesn’t chat’. I suppose that could be idiomatic for ‘this guy doesn’t mess around’, which in turn might be a warning which is expressed by the English as given. So far I can’t find another example of the Greek being used in this way. Anybody else?

Another note: There is a fairly well-known poem by Greek poet George Serferis which includes the line ‘η φρίκη δεν κουβεντιάζεσαι γιατί είναι ζωντανός.’ This poem was written at least in part about the Nazi occupation of Greece, and loosely translated means something like ‘I speak in fables and parables because the reality is too horrible to discuss directly’. Does the Tatoeba sentence refer indirectly to this poem ???