diff -r 197d703fb23e Tools/i18n/msgfmt.py
--- a/Tools/i18n/msgfmt.py	Sun Oct 30 20:39:24 2011 +0100
+++ b/Tools/i18n/msgfmt.py	Mon Oct 31 10:57:41 2011 +0100
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 import getopt
 import struct
 import array
+import re
 from email.parser import HeaderParser
 
 __version__ = "1.1"
@@ -180,17 +181,20 @@
         l = l.strip()
         if not l:
             continue
-        # XXX: Does this always follow Python escape semantics?
-        l = eval(l)
-        if section == ID:
-            msgid += l.encode(encoding)
-        elif section == STR:
-            msgstr += l.encode(encoding)
-        else:
+        # Strip leading and trailing double quote
+        l = l[1:-1]
+        # Check that entry is valid
+        if re.search(r'([^\\]|^)"', l) or section not in (ID, STR):
             print('Syntax error on %s:%d' % (infile, lno), \
                   'before:', file=sys.stderr)
             print(l, file=sys.stderr)
             sys.exit(1)
+
+        if section == ID:
+            msgid += l.encode(encoding)
+        else:
+            msgstr += l.encode(encoding)
+
     # Add last entry
     if section == STR:
         add(msgid, msgstr, fuzzy)