diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index ecd3d74523..f3fcafc188 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -748,6 +748,18 @@ def configure(conf):
         conf.env['CFLAGS'] = []
         conf.env['CXXFLAGS'] = []
 
+    # freedesktop translations needs itstool > 1.0.3 (-j option)
+    if Options.options.freedesktop:
+        output = subprocess.Popen("itstool --version", shell=True, stderr=subprocess.STDOUT, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0].splitlines()
+        o = output[0].decode('utf-8')
+        version = o.split(' ')[1].split('.')
+        # use  distutils.version.StrictVersion  or something python to check >= 1.0.4
+        # but first make sure that all build-hosts (incl. OSX-10.5/PPC) have that python lib.
+        # lazy approach: just use major version 2.X.X
+        if version[0] < "2":
+            print("--freedesktop requires itstool > 2.0.0 to translate files.")
+            sys.exit(-1)
+
     conf.env['VERSION'] = VERSION
     conf.env['MAJOR'] = MAJOR
     conf.env['MINOR'] = MINOR