Non ignara mali

I am working on a poem about a girl I knew in elementary school, and for some reason, Dido's statement to the shipwrecked Trojans keeps going through my head:

Non ignara mali, misereris succorrere disco.

So now that I've researched this, I realize I may have had the meaning slightly wrong all this time. Most translations go something like this: "Not unacquainted with suffering, I am learning to help the wretched."

But I always thought it was this: "While not ignorant of evil, I am learning to help the wretched." That's a very, very different statement - more interesting, I think; and more noble.