# tehdä (jotakin) monella saralla



## Gavril

Hyvää lauantaita,

I read this recently but wasn’t sure what the highlighted phrase meant:



> Entisen varapääministerin ja presidentin hallinnon päällikön tehtäväkenttää laajennetaan. Luottomiehestä tehdään päällystakki monella saralla.


 
(This is about Vladislav Surkov’s role in the Russian government)

”The field of responsibilities is being widened for the former Vice Prime Minister and President’s Chief of Staff. This trusted figure is being made into [a coat with many stripes?].”

In the original article, there’s a link under the phrase “päällystakki monella saralla” to an article in Russian. But, before using Google Translate on the Russian article, I thought I would ask: is there a common Finnish idiom “tehdä (jtk) monella saralla”, and if so, what does it mean?

Kiitos!


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## Hakro

Yes, _tehdä (jtk) monella saralla_ (to work in several areas) is a common idiom. Also  _päällystakki_ is often used for systems, organisations or sometimes even persons that work in several areas. Then there may be a pun as _sarka_ means both a strip of land and a type of fabric (wadmal, fearnought, hodden) that coats are made of.

This is my guess but I hope it helps.


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## Spongiformi

Hakro said:


> Then there may be a pun as _sarka_ means both a strip of land



More specifically, it means a section of a cultivated field. Those sections might be owned by different people or are just marked by physical factors such as ditches or different crops. The idiom of a person working on multiple things at the same time arises quite naturally from that agricultural image of a larger field divided in separate strips.


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## Gavril

Hakro said:


> Yes, _tehdä (jtk) monella saralla_ (to work in several areas) is a common idiom. Also  _päällystakki_ is often used for systems, organisations or sometimes even persons that work in several areas.


 
Does _päällystakki _by itself mean a person who works in many areas, or does it just mean "official (virkamies)" in this context?

I ask because, if _päällystakki _already implies a diversity of responsibilities, it seems redundant to say _monella saralla _(but perhaps I'm missing something).



> Then there may be a pun as _sarka_ means both a strip of land and a type of fabric (wadmal, fearnought, hodden) that coats are made of.
> 
> This is my guess but I hope it helps.



It does help, but I'm not sure exactly how _tehdä monella saralla _works in this context -- let me know if my analysis below is correct:
_
Luottomiehestä tehdään päällystakki monella saralla
_ 
= "This trusted figure [= _luottomies_] is becoming [= _tehdään_] a person who works [= _päällystakki_] in many areas [_= monella saralla_]"


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## Finland

Hello!

I actually disagree with fellow forum members on the meaning of päällystakki. I know the word only in its more normal dictionary meaning person who shadows or (secretly or not) observes other people. Typically, one uses the word for a government (secret service) official following around (suspicious) foreigners and nationals in a dictatorship, in ex-Soviet Union etc.

HTH
S


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