never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past

[GoodTaste]

Does "know" here mean "experience"? Checking out "know" in dictionaries gives me the impression that the meaning of "know" is elusive. If you never experience mean and petty behaviors, you don't have that kind of past.


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Man's dearest possession is life, and it is given to him to live but once. He must live so as to feel no torturing regrets for years without purpose, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying, he can say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world - the fight for the Liberation of Mankind.

Source: English translation from a former Soviet writer's book How Steel Is Made (the title is translated by me from Chinese. The above quotation is apparently translated by a native English speaker from Russian)

 

[GoesStation]

"Experience" would work there, yes.

 

[Tdol]

Does "know" here mean "experience"? Checking out "know" in dictionaries gives me the impression that the meaning of "know" is elusive. If you never experience mean and petty behaviors, you don't have that kind of past.

But you could experience a mean and petty past without feeling the burning shame.

 

[GoodTaste]

But you could experience a mean and petty past without feeling the burning shame.

Yes. You clearly have a point to make and that is exactly the nub of the problem raised in the OP. What does the word "know" there actually mean? Saying it means "experience" is simply a guess and not the best evidence to solve the linguistic myth.

 

[emsr2d2]

I would say that it means "experience, understand and feel".

It's really sad - he went his whole life without ever knowing love.