diff --git a/VERSION b/VERSION
index 9d6b7ef1..258fb691 100644
--- a/VERSION
+++ b/VERSION
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Version 1.99.4 (2011-12-16 09:42:45) stable
+Version 1.99.4 (2011-12-16 09:44:46) stable
diff --git a/gluon/validators.py b/gluon/validators.py
index e98e20ee..b5709b9e 100644
--- a/gluon/validators.py
+++ b/gluon/validators.py
@@ -2610,7 +2610,7 @@ class IS_STRONG(object):
                     failures.append("May not include any numbers")
         if len(failures) == 0:
             return (value, None)
-        if not translate(self.error_message):
+        if not self.error_message:
             from html import XML
             return (value, XML('<br />'.join(failures)))
         else: