Изредка и взрослому человеку хочется, чтобы его просто утешили и не задавали вопросов.

Изредка means occasionally / from time to time / once in a while.

It is close to иногда, but изредка often suggests less frequent or more occasional occurrence. It can also sound a little more literary or reflective.

So:

• иногда = sometimes
• изредка = occasionally, once in a while

In this sentence, изредка gives the idea that this feeling happens now and then, not regularly.

Here и has an emphatic meaning, closer to even.

So:

• Изредка взрослому человеку хочется... = Occasionally an adult wants...
• Изредка и взрослому человеку хочется... = Occasionally even an adult wants...

The idea is: children are not the only ones who want comfort; even adults feel this way sometimes.

Because the sentence uses the impersonal verb хочется, and the person who experiences the feeling is put in the dative.

This is a very common Russian pattern:

• Мне хочется спать. = I feel like sleeping.
• Ему хочется уйти. = He feels like leaving.
• Взрослому человеку хочется... = An adult feels like / wants...

So взрослому человеку means to an adult person, which in natural English becomes simply an adult.

Хочется is an impersonal form often used to express a feeling, urge, or desire that comes over someone.

Compare:

• Он хочет, чтобы его утешили. = He wants to be comforted.
  This is more direct and personal.
• Ему хочется, чтобы его утешили. = He feels like he wants to be comforted / He has the urge to be comforted.
  This sounds softer and more emotional.

So хочется often feels less like a firm decision and more like an inner need or mood.

After хочется, чтобы introduces what the person wants to happen.

So the structure is:

• хочется, чтобы... = one wants it so that... / one wants ... to happen / one wants someone to...

Here:

• хочется, чтобы его просто утешили...
  = one wants someone simply to comfort him / one wants to be comforted

Russian often uses чтобы where English might use an infinitive or a passive expression.

Because утешить takes a direct object:

• утешить кого? = to comfort whom?

So:

• утешить его = to comfort him

If you used ему, that would be dative, but утешить does not normally take the person being comforted in the dative.

So:

• его утешили = they comforted him / he was comforted

This is a very common Russian way to express an indefinite person: someone / people / they.

So:

• чтобы его утешили literally = so that they comforted him
• и не задавали вопросов = and did not ask questions

The plural verb does not refer to a specific group. It often means:

• someone
• people
• others

In natural English, we usually do not translate it as they literally. We say something like:

• to be comforted
• for someone to comfort him
• and not ask questions

This is about aspect, and the choice is meaningful.

• утешили is perfective from утешить
• задавали is imperfective from задавать

Why?

утешили (perfective)

This presents comforting as a complete result: the person wants to receive comfort.

не задавали (imperfective)

This presents asking questions as a process or repeated behavior that the person does not want.

So the sense is:

• just comfort me
• don’t start asking questions

If you changed it to не задали вопросов, that would sound more like didn’t ask any questions on that occasion as a single completed event.
Не задавали вопросов feels more like didn’t question me / didn’t keep asking things.

Because Russian often uses the genitive after negation, especially when the meaning is not any or no ... at all.

Compare:

• задавали вопросы = asked questions
• не задавали вопросов = asked no questions / didn’t ask any questions

So вопросов is genitive plural.

This pattern is especially natural when the speaker means the absence of something in a general sense. In this sentence, не задавали вопросов sounds very natural and idiomatic.

Просто here means just / simply.

It suggests:

• no analysis
• no interrogation
• no complicated reaction

So его просто утешили means something like:

• that he would simply be comforted
• that someone would just comfort him

The emotional point is: sometimes a person does not want discussion or explanation, only comfort.

Not necessarily.

The noun человек is grammatically masculine, so when Russian refers back to it with a pronoun, it often uses masculine forms like его, even when the meaning is general: a person / an adult.

So here it can mean:

• an adult person in general
• not specifically male

If the context were clearly about a woman, Russian could say её instead.

Because чтобы его просто утешили и не задавали вопросов is a subordinate clause.

Russian normally separates this kind of clause with a comma:

• хочется, чтобы...

So the comma marks the boundary between:

• the main clause: Изредка и взрослому человеку хочется
• the subordinate clause: чтобы его просто утешили и не задавали вопросов

A fairly literal breakdown would be:

• Изредка = Occasionally
• и взрослому человеку = even to an adult person / even an adult
• хочется = it is desirable / one feels like / one wants
• чтобы его просто утешили = for someone simply to comfort him
• и не задавали вопросов = and not ask questions

A natural English rendering would be:

Occasionally, even an adult just wants to be comforted and not asked questions.

That is much more natural than translating each Russian word mechanically.