diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 61585045b765287a11c88987413c002f5596f908..ae2b80b1083c18c6b0a15959fee304b6c43b3792 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -18,7 +18,12 @@ TCLTK_PATH_SQ = $(subst ','\'',$(TCLTK_PATH))
 
 ## po-file creation rules
 XGETTEXT   ?= xgettext
-MSGFMT     ?= msgfmt
+ifdef NO_MSGFMT
+	MSGFMT ?= $(TCL_PATH) po/po2msg.sh
+else
+	MSGFMT ?= msgfmt
+endif
+
 PO_TEMPLATE = po/gitk.pot
 ALL_POFILES = $(wildcard po/*.po)
 ALL_MSGFILES = $(subst .po,.msg,$(ALL_POFILES))
diff --git a/po/.gitignore b/po/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..e358dd1903352f5cd65ac77e777ae14d6887adc0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/po/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+*.msg
diff --git a/po/po2msg.sh b/po/po2msg.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..c63248e3752b8b479f75ad2fe772dd40f684be54
--- /dev/null
+++ b/po/po2msg.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,133 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tcl ignores the next line -*- tcl -*- \
+exec tclsh "$0" -- "$@"
+
+# This is a really stupid program, which serves as an alternative to
+# msgfmt.  It _only_ translates to Tcl mode, does _not_ validate the
+# input, and does _not_ output any statistics.
+
+proc u2a {s} {
+	set res ""
+	foreach i [split $s ""] {
+		scan $i %c c
+		if {$c<128} {
+			# escape '[', '\' and ']'
+			if {$c == 0x5b || $c == 0x5d} {
+				append res "\\"
+			}
+			append res $i
+		} else {
+			append res \\u[format %04.4x $c]
+		}
+	}
+	return $res
+}
+
+set output_directory "."
+set lang "dummy"
+set files [list]
+set show_statistics 0
+
+# parse options
+for {set i 0} {$i < $argc} {incr i} {
+	set arg [lindex $argv $i]
+	if {$arg == "--statistics"} {
+		incr show_statistics
+		continue
+	}
+	if {$arg == "--tcl"} {
+		# we know
+		continue
+	}
+	if {$arg == "-l"} {
+		incr i
+		set lang [lindex $argv $i]
+		continue
+	}
+	if {$arg == "-d"} {
+		incr i
+		set tmp [lindex $argv $i]
+		regsub "\[^/\]$" $tmp "&/" output_directory
+		continue
+	}
+	lappend files $arg
+}
+
+proc flush_msg {} {
+	global msgid msgstr mode lang out fuzzy
+	global translated_count fuzzy_count not_translated_count
+
+	if {![info exists msgid] || $mode == ""} {
+		return
+	}
+	set mode ""
+	if {$fuzzy == 1} {
+		incr fuzzy_count
+		set fuzzy 0
+		return
+	}
+
+	if {$msgid == ""} {
+		set prefix "set ::msgcat::header"
+	} else {
+		if {$msgstr == ""} {
+			incr not_translated_count
+			return
+		}
+		set prefix "::msgcat::mcset $lang \"[u2a $msgid]\""
+		incr translated_count
+	}
+
+	puts $out "$prefix \"[u2a $msgstr]\""
+}
+
+set fuzzy 0
+set translated_count 0
+set fuzzy_count 0
+set not_translated_count 0
+foreach file $files {
+	regsub "^.*/\(\[^/\]*\)\.po$" $file "$output_directory\\1.msg" outfile
+	set in [open $file "r"]
+	fconfigure $in -encoding utf-8
+	set out [open $outfile "w"]
+
+	set mode ""
+	while {[gets $in line] >= 0} {
+		if {[regexp "^#" $line]} {
+			if {[regexp ", fuzzy" $line]} {
+				set fuzzy 1
+			} else {
+				flush_msg
+			}
+			continue
+		} elseif {[regexp "^msgid \"(.*)\"$" $line dummy match]} {
+			flush_msg
+			set msgid $match
+			set mode "msgid"
+		} elseif {[regexp "^msgstr \"(.*)\"$" $line dummy match]} {
+			set msgstr $match
+			set mode "msgstr"
+		} elseif {$line == ""} {
+			flush_msg
+		} elseif {[regexp "^\"(.*)\"$" $line dummy match]} {
+			if {$mode == "msgid"} {
+				append msgid $match
+			} elseif {$mode == "msgstr"} {
+				append msgstr $match
+			} else {
+				puts stderr "I do not know what to do: $match"
+			}
+		} else {
+			puts stderr "Cannot handle $line"
+		}
+	}
+	flush_msg
+	close $in
+	close $out
+}
+
+if {$show_statistics} {
+	puts [concat "$translated_count translated messages, " \
+		"$fuzzy_count fuzzy ones, " \
+		"$not_translated_count untranslated ones."]
+}