diff --git a/src/fe-text/Makefile.am b/src/fe-text/Makefile.am
index de779725..a3ffadda 100644
--- a/src/fe-text/Makefile.am
+++ b/src/fe-text/Makefile.am
@@ -7,7 +7,8 @@ INCLUDES = \
 	-I$(top_srcdir)/src/irc/core/ \
 	-I$(top_srcdir)/src/fe-common/core/ \
 	-I$(top_srcdir)/src/fe-common/irc/ \
-	$(CURSES_INCLUDEDIR)
+	$(CURSES_INCLUDEDIR) \
+	-DLOCALEDIR=\""$(datadir)/locale"\"
 
 irssi_DEPENDENCIES = @COMMON_LIBS@
 
diff --git a/src/fe-text/irssi.c b/src/fe-text/irssi.c
index 9a014c60..f967e42b 100644
--- a/src/fe-text/irssi.c
+++ b/src/fe-text/irssi.c
@@ -150,6 +150,11 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 #ifdef HAVE_SOCKS
 	SOCKSinit(argv[0]);
 #endif
+#ifdef ENABLE_NLS
+	/* initialize the i18n stuff */
+	bindtextdomain(PACKAGE, LOCALEDIR);
+	textdomain(PACKAGE);
+#endif
 
 	textui_init();
 	args_execute(argc, argv);