diff --git a/README b/README
index 4a9d31a77..b1c1ce40a 100644
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -111,11 +111,6 @@ configure options, there are the following SANE specific options:
 	configuration file. Please refer to the backend's man pages for
 	details.
 
---disable-translations
-	Disable installation of translated backend options. If you get
-	errors in the po/ directory during build, use this option.
-	See po/README for details.
-
 --enable-locking
 	Means, that some backends will use a lockfile for allowing multiple
 	access to one scanner. This is useful, i.e. one frontend is scanning
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 95f8942c8..73c66522d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -740,22 +740,6 @@ AC_ARG_ENABLE(parport-directio,
     fi
   ])
 
-AC_ARG_ENABLE(translations,
-  AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-translations],
-                 [don't install translations of backend options]),,
-		 enable_translations=yes)
-if eval "test x$enable_translations = xyes" ; then
-  if test x$MSGFMT = xno || test x$XGETTEXT = xno || test $MSGMERGE = no ; then
-    enable_translations=no
-    echo "disabling translations (missing msgfmt, xgettext or msgmerge)"
-  else
-    echo "enabling translations"
-  fi
-else
-  echo "disabling translations"
-fi  
-AM_CONDITIONAL(ENABLE_TRANSLATIONS, test x$enable_translations = xyes)
-
 AC_ARG_ENABLE(latex,
 	      AS_HELP_STRING([--disable-latex],
 	      [disable use of latex, et.al., to generate documentation]),,