diff --git a/Modules/FindQt4.cmake b/Modules/FindQt4.cmake
index c6ee799a9..566a7a0de 100644
--- a/Modules/FindQt4.cmake
+++ b/Modules/FindQt4.cmake
@@ -1295,21 +1295,35 @@ IF (QT4_QMAKE_FOUND)
    MACRO(QT4_CREATE_TRANSLATION _qm_files)
       QT4_EXTRACT_OPTIONS(_lupdate_files _lupdate_options ${ARGN})
       SET(_my_sources)
+      SET(_my_dirs)
       SET(_my_tsfiles)
+      SET(_ts_pro)
       FOREACH (_file ${_lupdate_files})
          GET_FILENAME_COMPONENT(_ext ${_file} EXT)
          GET_FILENAME_COMPONENT(_abs_FILE ${_file} ABSOLUTE)
          IF(_ext MATCHES "ts")
            LIST(APPEND _my_tsfiles ${_abs_FILE})
          ELSE(_ext MATCHES "ts")
-           LIST(APPEND _my_sources ${_abs_FILE})
+           IF(NOT _ext)
+             LIST(APPEND _my_dirs ${_abs_FILE})
+           ELSE(NOT _ext)
+             LIST(APPEND _my_sources ${_abs_FILE})
+           ENDIF(NOT _ext)
          ENDIF(_ext MATCHES "ts")
       ENDFOREACH(_file)
       FOREACH(_ts_file ${_my_tsfiles})
+        IF(_my_sources)
+          # make a .pro file to call lupdate on, so we don't make our commands too
+          # long for some systems
+          GET_FILENAME_COMPONENT(_ts_name ${_ts_file} NAME_WE)
+          SET(_ts_pro ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}${CMAKE_FILES_DIRECTORY}/${_ts_name}_lupdate.pro)
+          STRING(REPLACE ";" " " _pro_srcs "${_my_sources}")
+          FILE(WRITE ${_ts_pro} "SOURCES = ${_pro_srcs}")
+        ENDIF(_my_sources)
         ADD_CUSTOM_COMMAND(OUTPUT ${_ts_file}
            COMMAND ${QT_LUPDATE_EXECUTABLE}
-           ARGS ${_lupdate_options} ${_my_sources} -ts ${_ts_file}
-           DEPENDS ${_my_sources})
+           ARGS ${_lupdate_options} ${_ts_pro} ${_my_dirs} -ts ${_ts_file}
+           DEPENDS ${_my_sources} ${_ts_pro})
       ENDFOREACH(_ts_file)
       QT4_ADD_TRANSLATION(${_qm_files} ${_my_tsfiles})
    ENDMACRO(QT4_CREATE_TRANSLATION)