diff --git a/generator/utils.ml b/generator/utils.ml
index 6bc039f50..b3b7ee379 100644
--- a/generator/utils.ml
+++ b/generator/utils.ml
@@ -309,6 +309,7 @@ let pod2text ?width ?(trim = true) ?(discard = true) name longdesc =
   try Hashtbl.find pod2text_memo key
   with Not_found ->
     let filename, chan = Filename.open_temp_file "gen" ".tmp" in
+    fprintf chan "=encoding utf8\n\n";
     fprintf chan "=head1 %s\n\n%s\n" name longdesc;
     close_out chan;
     let cmd =
diff --git a/podwrapper.pl.in b/podwrapper.pl.in
index cb6e9b270..bbc0b7cfa 100755
--- a/podwrapper.pl.in
+++ b/podwrapper.pl.in
@@ -515,6 +515,7 @@ if ($text) {
     $parser->output_string (\$output);
     $parser->parse_string_document ($content);
     open OUT, ">$text" or die "$progname: $text: $!";
+    binmode OUT, ":utf8";
     print OUT $output or die "$progname: $text: $!";
     close OUT or die "$progname: $text: $!";
     print "$progname: wrote $text\n";