diff --git a/Lib/getopt.py b/Lib/getopt.py
index e5fd04fe12a7ee..1df5b96472a45c 100644
--- a/Lib/getopt.py
+++ b/Lib/getopt.py
@@ -34,11 +34,8 @@
 __all__ = ["GetoptError","error","getopt","gnu_getopt"]
 
 import os
-try:
-    from gettext import gettext as _
-except ImportError:
-    # Bootstrapping Python: gettext's dependencies not built yet
-    def _(s): return s
+from gettext import gettext as _
+
 
 class GetoptError(Exception):
     opt = ''
diff --git a/Lib/optparse.py b/Lib/optparse.py
index 1c450c6fcbe3b6..04112eca37c801 100644
--- a/Lib/optparse.py
+++ b/Lib/optparse.py
@@ -75,6 +75,8 @@
 
 import sys, os
 import textwrap
+from gettext import gettext as _, ngettext
+
 
 def _repr(self):
     return "<%s at 0x%x: %s>" % (self.__class__.__name__, id(self), self)
@@ -86,19 +88,6 @@ def _repr(self):
 #   Id: help.py 527 2006-07-23 15:21:30Z greg
 #   Id: errors.py 509 2006-04-20 00:58:24Z gward
 
-try:
-    from gettext import gettext, ngettext
-except ImportError:
-    def gettext(message):
-        return message
-
-    def ngettext(singular, plural, n):
-        if n == 1:
-            return singular
-        return plural
-
-_ = gettext
-
 
 class OptParseError (Exception):
     def __init__(self, msg):