i18n translation not working with ember - Assertion Failed: Missing translation for key

I am using ember-cli-i18n in an ember-cli app..

I have property menuItems which returns..

[{
  text: 'leftnav_nonfollower',
  route: 'nonFollowers'
}, {
  text: 'leftnav_nonfans',
  route: 'fans'
}]

In template i use menuItems as ..

{{#each menuItem in navItems}}
  <li {{action 'changeRoute' menuItem }} >
    <a href="#" class='nav-circle'>
     {{t menuItem.text}}
    </a>
  </li>
{{/each}}

Now instead of looking for translation for leftnav_nonfollower.. the library utility t() is actually instead looking for translation of string menuItem.text.. thus giving error Assertion Failed: Missing translation for key "menuItem.text".