«حِلْمِ الْجَعَانْ عِيشْ»

The saying observes that longing follows lack. A person without food does not picture riches or feasts; the mind settles on plain bread (عيش in its everyday colloquial sense), the very thing that is missing, so even dreams are shaped by need.

More broadly, the saying suggests that people's daydreams reveal what they most urgently lack. It can acknowledge a real need sympathetically or gently tease someone whose talk repeatedly returns to the same desire.

A gentle, knowing remark when someone's hopes plainly mirror what they lack, or when a person keeps returning to one pressing need. Its tone can be sympathetic or mildly teasing.