diff --git a/sphinx/locale/__init__.py b/sphinx/locale/__init__.py
index 43e0942cd..2165e7dd2 100644
--- a/sphinx/locale/__init__.py
+++ b/sphinx/locale/__init__.py
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ pairindextypes = {
 translator = None
 
 def _(message):
-    return translator.gettext(message)
+    return translator.ugettext(message)
 
 def init(locale_dirs, language):
     global translator