Fit saepe ut desiderium absentium nobis dolorem afferat, sed spes dolorem minuat.

Here fit is an impersonal use of fio. Instead of meaning becomes or is made, it means it happens or it comes about.

So fit saepe means it often happens.

Latin often uses impersonal verbs without a named subject, just as English says it happens without a real concrete it.

After impersonal expressions like fit, Latin very often uses ut + subjunctive to mean that:

• fit ut ... = it happens that ...

So this is not a purpose clause meaning in order that. It is a clause giving the content of what happens.

Many grammars describe this as a kind of result/content clause after fit.

They are subjunctive because they belong to the ut clause after fit.

So the pattern is:

• fit ... ut ... afferat ... minuat
• it happens that ... brings ... and lessens ...

In this construction, Latin normally uses the subjunctive. If these verbs were standing as ordinary independent statements, you would expect indicative forms like affert and minuit.

Because minuat is still part of the same ut clause.

The structure is essentially:

• Fit saepe ut desiderium absentium nobis dolorem afferat, sed spes dolorem minuat.

That means:

• It often happens that longing for the absent brings us pain, but hope lessens the pain.

Latin does not need to repeat ut before the second verb. The conjunction sed simply links a second statement inside the same dependent clause.

The subject is desiderium absentium.

More precisely, the head noun is desiderium (longing, desire), and absentium modifies it.

So:

• desiderium = the main noun
• absentium = of the absent / for the absent

Because desiderium is singular, the verb is singular: afferat.

Absentium is genitive plural of absens, absentis (absent, being away).

Here it is being used substantively, meaning something like:

• of absent people
• of those who are absent

So desiderium absentium literally looks like desire/longing of the absent, but in sense it means longing for the absent.

Yes, in isolation the genitive could in theory be understood either way.

A genitive with a noun like desiderium can be:

• subjective: the absent people are doing the longing
• objective: someone longs for the absent people

Here the context strongly points to the objective genitive:

• longing for absent people brings us pain

That is the natural sense in this sentence.

Because nobis is dative, and afferre often takes:

• a direct object = the thing brought
• an indirect object = the person it is brought to

So here:

• dolorem = pain, the direct object
• nobis = to us, the indirect object

In other words:

• dolorem nobis afferat = brings pain to us

Using nos would not fit this construction.

Latin often repeats a noun where English might be happy to leave it understood.

Here the repetition makes the balance very clear:

• desiderium ... dolorem afferat
• spes dolorem minuat

That gives a neat contrast:

• longing brings pain
• hope lessens pain

The repeated dolorem also avoids any ambiguity about what minuat is acting on.

Here it is singular: hope.

You can tell from the verb minuat, which is singular.

This is a useful form to notice, because spes is a fifth-declension noun, and its nominative singular ends in -es. To an English speaker, that can look plural at first, but here it is definitely singular.

Because Latin word order is flexible, and the sentence is framed first as a general observation:

• Fit saepe = It often happens

That opening tells you right away that the speaker is making a general statement about what commonly occurs. Then the ut clause explains what it is that happens.

So the order is natural Latin, even though English would more often start with a subject.