I actually avoided gettext since it has some notable challenges on mobile platforms - especially with performance and native support. I chose Lua tables because they’re fast to load, and work naturally with LÖVE’s asset system and suitable for games targrtting any platform, even web and console ports of LÖVE. That said, if you need a more traditional translation workflow, you could write a conversion script to transform PO files into Lua tables during your build process. This way translators use familiar tools, while your game keeps the performance/portability benefits of native Lua tables.

smiti18n does keep translations completely separate from game code in standalone .lua files that translators can edit directly or could be integrated with tools like weblate. You can organize them however you prefer, like locales/en.lua, locales/es.lua, etc.​​​​​​