diff --git a/src/draw.c b/src/draw.c
index 3e00efc5..81880e36 100644
--- a/src/draw.c
+++ b/src/draw.c
@@ -766,6 +766,7 @@ void draw_symbol(int what,int c, int n,int layer,short tmp_flip, short rot,
           cairo_font_face_destroy(xctx->cairo_font);
         }
         #endif
+        dbg(1, "drawing string: before translate(): text.txt_ptr=%s\n", text.txt_ptr);
         my_strdup2(_ALLOC_ID_, &txtptr, translate(n, text.txt_ptr));
         /* do another round of substitutions if some @var are found, but if not found leave @var as is */
         dbg(1, "drawing string: str=%s prop=%s\n", txtptr, text.prop_ptr ?  text.prop_ptr : "NULL");
diff --git a/src/token.c b/src/token.c
index 53cc9a03..ebfcb0d9 100644
--- a/src/token.c
+++ b/src/token.c
@@ -4485,7 +4485,7 @@ const char *translate3(const char *s, int eat_escapes, const char *s1, const cha
    my_strcat(_ALLOC_ID_, &result, ch);
   }
   if(c=='\0') {
-   my_strcat(_ALLOC_ID_, &result, "");
+   /* my_strcat(_ALLOC_ID_, &result, ""); */
    break;
   }
  } /* while(1) */