diff --git a/babel/messages/pofile.py b/babel/messages/pofile.py
index 57b038883..5d7c80e8c 100644
--- a/babel/messages/pofile.py
+++ b/babel/messages/pofile.py
@@ -144,7 +144,8 @@ def __init__(self, *args: str) -> None:
             self.append(arg)
 
     def append(self, s: str) -> None:
-        self._strs.append(s.strip())
+        assert s[0] == '"' and s[-1] == '"'
+        self._strs.append(s)
 
     def denormalize(self) -> str:
         return ''.join(map(unescape, self._strs))
diff --git a/tests/messages/test_normalized_string.py b/tests/messages/test_normalized_string.py
index 735603770..f398a1680 100644
--- a/tests/messages/test_normalized_string.py
+++ b/tests/messages/test_normalized_string.py
@@ -4,19 +4,14 @@
 
 
 def test_normalized_string():
-    ab1 = _NormalizedString('"a"', '"b" ')
-    ab2 = _NormalizedString('"a"', ' "b"')
-    ac1 = _NormalizedString('"a"', '"c"')
-    ac2 = _NormalizedString('  "a"', '"c"  ')
+    ab = _NormalizedString('"a"', '"b"')
+    ac = _NormalizedString('"a"', '"c"')
     z = _NormalizedString()
-    assert ab1 == ab2 and ac1 == ac2  # __eq__
-    assert ab1 < ac1  # __lt__
-    assert ac1 > ab2  # __gt__
-    assert ac1 >= ac2  # __ge__
-    assert ab1 <= ab2  # __le__
-    assert ab1 != ac1  # __ne__
+    assert ab < ac  # __lt__
+    assert ac > ab  # __gt__
+    assert ab != ac  # __ne__
     assert not z  # __nonzero__ / __bool__
-    assert sorted([ab1, ab2, ac1]) == [ab1, ab2, ac1] # sorted() is stable
+    assert sorted([ac, ab, z]) == [z, ab, ac] # sorted() is stable
 
 
 @pytest.mark.parametrize(
@@ -38,10 +33,10 @@ def test_denormalized_simple_normalized_string(original, denormalized):
     "originals, denormalized",
     (
         (('"a"', '"b"'), "ab"),
-        (('"a" ', '"b"'), "ab"),
+        (('"a"', '"b"'), "ab"),
         (('"ab"', '""'), "ab"),
         (('"ab"', '"c"'), "abc"),
-        (('"a"', '     "bc"'), "abc"),
+        (('"a"', '"bc"'), "abc"),
     ),
 )
 def test_denormalized_multi_normalized_string(originals, denormalized):