diff --git a/gettext.c b/gettext.c
index edce53a4e3..0a974f9cd1 100644
--- a/gettext.c
+++ b/gettext.c
@@ -169,11 +169,13 @@ void git_setup_gettext(void)
 	if (!is_absolute_path(podir))
 		podir = p = system_path(podir);
 
-	bindtextdomain("git", podir);
-	setlocale(LC_MESSAGES, "");
-	setlocale(LC_TIME, "");
-	init_gettext_charset("git");
-	textdomain("git");
+	if (is_directory(podir)) {
+		bindtextdomain("git", podir);
+		setlocale(LC_MESSAGES, "");
+		setlocale(LC_TIME, "");
+		init_gettext_charset("git");
+		textdomain("git");
+	}
 
 	free(p);
 }