diff --git a/modules/TDEMacros.cmake b/modules/TDEMacros.cmake
index b1d7aaf..a4c1b4c 100644
--- a/modules/TDEMacros.cmake
+++ b/modules/TDEMacros.cmake
@@ -2023,9 +2023,9 @@ macro( tde_create_translated_desktop )
       file( MAKE_DIRECTORY "${_out_dir}" )
     endif( )
 
-    # are there any translations available?
+    # are there any translations available, and required?
     unset( _translations )
-    if( EXISTS "${_po_dir}" AND IS_DIRECTORY "${_po_dir}" )
+    if( EXISTS "${_po_dir}" AND IS_DIRECTORY "${_po_dir}" AND BUILD_TRANSLATIONS )
       file( GLOB _translations RELATIVE "${_po_dir}" "${_po_dir}/*.po" )
     endif( )