diff --git a/po/Makevars b/po/Makevars
index 22837aba49..b6ee6afb97 100644
--- a/po/Makevars
+++ b/po/Makevars
@@ -7,6 +7,12 @@ DOMAIN = $(PACKAGE)
 subdir = po
 top_builddir = ..
 
+# Save xgettext path
+XGETTEXT_FALLBACK := $(XGETTEXT)
+
+# Override xgettext with our own custom wrapper
+XGETTEXT = $(srcdir)/xgettext_wrapper $(XGETTEXT_FALLBACK)
+
 # These options get passed to xgettext.
 XGETTEXT_OPTIONS = --keyword=_ --keyword=N_ --from-code=UTF-8 --foreign-user
 
diff --git a/po/xgettext_wrapper b/po/xgettext_wrapper
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..9415f2f39b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/po/xgettext_wrapper
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+XGETTEXT=$1
+shift
+$XGETTEXT "$@"
+exit $?