Index: share/mk/doc.commands.mk
===================================================================
--- share/mk/doc.commands.mk
+++ share/mk/doc.commands.mk
@@ -70,8 +70,16 @@
 HTML2TXT?=	${PREFIX}/bin/links
 HTML2TXTOPTS?=	-dump ${HTML2TXTFLAGS}
 
+ITSTOOL?=	${PREFIX}/bin/itstool
+
 JING?=		${PREFIX}/bin/jing
 
+MSGFMT?=	${PREFIX}/bin/msgfmt
+MSGMERGE?=	${PREFIX}/bin/msgmerge
+
+PO4AGETTEXTIZE?=	${PREFIX}/bin/po4a-gettextize
+PO4ATRANSLATE?=		${PREFIX}/bin/po4a-translate
+
 XMLLINT?=	${PREFIX}/bin/xmllint
 XSLTPROC?=	${PREFIX}/bin/xsltproc
 
Index: share/mk/doc.docbook.mk
===================================================================
--- share/mk/doc.docbook.mk
+++ share/mk/doc.docbook.mk
@@ -269,6 +269,76 @@
 	${SED} 's|@@URL_RELPREFIX@@|http://www.FreeBSD.org|g' < ${.TARGET} > ${DOC}.parsed.print.xml
 	${SED} -i '' -e 's|@@URL_RELPREFIX@@|../../../..|g' ${.TARGET}
 
+# translation -------------------------------------------------------
+
+# define KEEPENTS to preserve entities in PO file
+
+# choice of PO software, po4a or itstool
+POSOFT?=	po4a
+ENGDIR?=	${MASTERDOC:H:S/${LANGCODE}/en_US.ISO8859-1/}
+ENGSRCS?=	${ENGDIR}/${SRCS:S/${LANGCODE}/en_US.ISO8859-1/}
+# target PO file
+POFILE?=	${LANGCODE:C/_.*$//}
+
+# keep entities as-is, or expand them to text
+.if defined(KEEPENTS)
+NORMALIZE_MSG=	"preserving entities"
+NORMALIZE_CMD=	${XMLLINT} --nonet         --valid --xinclude ${MASTERDOC:S/${LANGCODE}/en_US.ISO8859-1/}
+.else
+NORMALIZE_MSG=	"expanding entities"
+NORMALIZE_CMD=	${XMLLINT} --nonet --noent --valid --xinclude ${MASTERDOC:S/${LANGCODE}/en_US.ISO8859-1/}
+.endif
+
+# document type, typically "article" or "book"
+DOCTYPE=	${MASTERDOC:H:H:T:S/articles/article/:S/books/book/}
+
+# filter redundant attributes from tags so translators do not have to deal with them
+FILTER_CMD=	${SED} -i '' -e 's, xmlns=\"http://docbook.org/ns/docbook\",,g' \
+			     -e 's, xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\",,g' \
+			     -e 's,^<${DOCTYPE}.*version=\"5.0\",<${DOCTYPE} xmlns=\"http://docbook.org/ns/docbook\" version=\"5.0\" xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\",'
+
+# fix settings in PO file
+POSET_CMD=	${SED} -i '' -e 's,^\"Language: \\n,\"Language: ${LANGCODE:C/_.*$//}\\n,' \
+			     -e 's,^\"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=CHARSET\\n,\"Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8\\n,'
+
+# use textproc/po4a or textproc/itstool for PO generation
+. if ${POSOFT:Mpo4a}
+PO_CMD=		${PO4AGETTEXTIZE} -p ${POFILE}.po.tmp -m ${DOC}.translate.xml -f docbook -M UTF-8 -L UTF-8 --copyright-holder 'not set'
+TRAN_CMD=	${PO4ATRANSLATE} -p ${POFILE}.po -f docbook -m ${DOC}.translate.xml -M UTF-8 -L UTF-8 -l ${DOC}.xml -k 0
+. elif ${POSOFT:Mitstool}
+PO_CMD=		${ITSTOOL} -k -o ${POFILE}.po.tmp ${DOC}.translate.xml
+TRAN_CMD=	${MSGFMT} -o ${POFILE}.mo ${POFILE}.po ; ${ITSTOOL} -k -l ${LANGCODE:S/_.*//} -m ${POFILE}.mo -o ${DOC}.xml ${DOC}.translate.xml
+. endif
+
+# create a po file for translations
+po ${POFILE}.po:	${ENGSRCS}
+	# create the normalized translation file
+	@${ECHO} ${NORMALIZE_MSG}
+	@${NORMALIZE_CMD} > ${DOC}.translate.xml
+	# filter redundant attributes
+	@${FILTER_CMD} ${DOC}.translate.xml
+	# create the PO file
+	@${PO_CMD}
+	# fix settings in PO file
+	@${POSET_CMD} ${POFILE}.po.tmp
+	# if PO file already exists, merge new version with it
+	@( if [ -f "${POFILE}.po" ]; then \
+		echo "${POFILE}.po exists, merging" ; \
+		${MSGMERGE} -o ${POFILE}.po.new ${POFILE}.po ${POFILE}.po.tmp ;\
+		${MV} ${POFILE}.po.new ${POFILE}.po ; \
+		${RM} ${POFILE}.po.tmp ; \
+	  else \
+	  	${ECHO} "New PO file created." ; \
+	  	${ECHO} "Please check and correct the settings in the header of ${POFILE}.po." ; \
+		${MV} ${POFILE}.po.tmp ${POFILE}.po ; \
+	  fi )
+
+tran:	${POFILE}.po
+	# generate the translated document from the PO file and ${DOC}.translate.xml
+	# ${DOC}.translate.xml might require some post-processing first,
+	# like for @@URL_RELPREFIX@@ if entities have been expanded
+	@${TRAN_CMD}
+
 # XHTML -------------------------------------------------------------
 
 index.html: ${DOC}.parsed.xml ${LOCAL_IMAGES_LIB} ${LOCAL_IMAGES_PNG} \