Read More … and Search… translation strings not being used

Hi, My project includes localization in Spanish and Serbian. I have started the translation using the provided .pot. However, the issue I am currently experiencing is that the Read More and Search bar strings are taken from the customization instead of the translation files. Admittedly, I had initially changed the default values hoping that they will appear in Polylang's Strings translations page. Since they didn't, I went to plan B: creating the translation files. Still the customized values appeared. I tried putting back the default values and removing the strings in customization altogether. Nothing worked. Is there a way for me to force the translation strings to be used? I should mention that I am using a child theme. Many thanks, Mihailo