@@ -559,7 +559,7 @@ sub description {

   else {

     # Read description

     return unless -f $file;

-    my $description = $self->_dec($self->_slurp($file) || '');

+    my $description = $self->_dec($self->_slurp($file) || '', 'UTF-8');

     return $description;

   }

 }

@@ -1669,9 +1669,9 @@ sub _chop_str {

 }

 sub _dec {

-  my ($self, $str) = @_;

+  my ($self, $str, $encoding) = @_;

-  my $enc = $self->encoding;

+  my $enc = $encoding || $self->encoding;

   my $new_str;

   eval { $new_str = decode($enc, $str) };

@@ -1679,14 +1679,6 @@ sub _dec {

   return $@ ? $str : $new_str;

 }

-sub _enc {

-  my ($self, $str) = @_;

-  

-  my $enc = $self->encoding;

-  

-  return encode($enc, $str);

-}

-

 sub _mode_str {

   my $self = shift;

   my $mode = oct shift;