diff -r f7ab1db39778 -r 38ce8b8a980f dbapi.py
--- a/dbapi.py	Fri Oct 14 15:19:25 2011 +0200
+++ b/dbapi.py	Fri Oct 14 16:42:10 2011 +0200
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@
         except KeyError:
             # this occurs usually during test execution
             self._ = self.__ = unicode
-            self.pgettext = lambda x, y: y
+            self.pgettext = lambda x, y: unicode(y)
         self.debug('request default language: %s', self.lang)
 
     # entities cache management ###############################################