diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index e01f480fa..cace9d01c 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 Release 0.6.4 (in development)
 ==============================
 
+* #285: make the ``locale_dirs`` config value work again.
+
 * #303: ``html_context`` values given on the command line via ``-A``
   should not override other values given in conf.py.
 
diff --git a/sphinx/builders/__init__.py b/sphinx/builders/__init__.py
index dc4a64de0..5d75a8865 100644
--- a/sphinx/builders/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/builders/__init__.py
@@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ class Builder(object):
                     if self.translator is None:
                         self.translator = trans
                     else:
-                        self.translator._catalog.update(trans.catalog)
+                        self.translator._catalog.update(trans._catalog)
                 except Exception:
                     # Language couldn't be found in the specified path
                     pass