«يَا يِحْرِقُهْ يَا يِمْرِقُهْ»

The image is of a careless cook: one moment the fire is too high and the dish scorches, the next so much water goes in that it turns into thin broth. The second verb uses a colloquial sense of making food runny, not the standard Arabic sense of passing through or straying. Either way the dish is ruined.

Applied to people, the image is figurative: the saying marks someone who habitually lurches between extremes, going too far or falling short, and who rarely achieves balance. It carries mild criticism or exasperation at a person whose handling of affairs lacks moderation and judgment.

Say it about someone who cannot hit the right measure, whose efforts swing from too much to too little, such as a person who is either harsh or lax, or who either overspends or stints, never settling on a sensible middle course.