患难见真情
A google search from sites shows:
"A friend in need is a friend indeed" (is in here meaning during or requiring?).
A literal translation reveals "adversity" while another shows "adversity truth."
Are these the correct translations? I understand a connection between "adversity truth" and "a friend during need is a friend indeed" in that "adversity shows truth", but I don't see how "adversity" can mean "a friend during need is a friend indeed."
I would interpret "患难见真情" as: " true heart (friendship) shows itself in difficult time"
When life is good, everything is fine, you may have a lot of fair weather friends; only in difficult time, you can see whose friendship with you are real.
Similar phrases:
家贫出孝子, 国难见忠臣 (when family is poor, you can see who is a good son; when country is in peril, you can see who are loyal subjects)
路遥知马力, 日久见人心 (long road test the true strength of a horse; long time test the true heart of a person)
It originate from
《醉醒石》（明，东鲁古狂生）第十回：“浦肫夫患难之交，今日年兄为我们看他，异日我们也代年兄看他
I think this translate to : "浦肫夫 is a friend that went through hardships with us, brother is willing to see him(or take care of him) today for us, so we'll go see him(take care of him) for our brother another day."? 患难之交 means friend whom we went through hardships together. 年兄 could be a person whom we went to take exam with to become government official, or could be brother by sworn.
The expression means only after being through hardships together that one can see friend that knows you or "real friend".
See this link: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%82%A3%E9%9A%BE%E8%A7%81%E7%9C%9F%E6%83%85/33587 It has English translation, but I think it is not very accurate. I hope this is mostly correct.
"患难见真情" true love prevails hardships.
"患难" means hardships "真情" means true love.
Only through adversity will you know who is really with you.
The problem you had stems from wrong parsing of "患难见真情"
It should be parsed as:-
患难 = hardships / adversities
见 = will reveal
真情 = (one's) true feelings
BTW, "in need" in the context of "A friend in need is a friend indeed" are parsed together. "In need" is to say that someone or something needs to have something, usually on an urgent basis.
e.g.
-- in need of financial support;
-- in need of urgent attention;
-- in need of repair.
Finally, "in need" also has a deliberate poetic linkage to rhyme with "in deed"
