Index: sage/rings/polynomial/multi_polynomial_libsingular.pyx
===================================================================
--- sage/rings/polynomial/multi_polynomial_libsingular.pyx	(revision 8645)
+++ sage/rings/polynomial/multi_polynomial_libsingular.pyx	(revision 8721)
@@ -515,5 +515,5 @@
         
         if PY_TYPE_CHECK(element, basestring):
-            # let python do the the parsing
+            # let python do the parsing
             d = self.gens_dict()
             if PY_TYPE_CHECK(self._base, FiniteField_givaro):
@@ -614,4 +614,9 @@
         if is_Macaulay2Element(element):
             return self(repr(element))
+
+        try:
+            return self(str(element))
+        except TypeError:
+            pass
 
         # now try calling the base ring's __call__ methods