--- a/mercurial/i18n.py
+++ b/mercurial/i18n.py
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ if (
 
 
 datapath = pycompat.fsdecode(resourceutil.datapath)
-localedir = os.path.join(datapath, 'locale')
+localedir = '/usr/share/locale'
 t = gettextmod.translation('hg', localedir, _languages, fallback=True)
 try:
     _ugettext = t.ugettext  # pytype: disable=attribute-error