Mason component with utf8 text

[ph0enix]

Hi,
I want to use HTML::Mason for some site which should be localized to various languages. I tryied to use i18n component mentioned in documentation, but texts are not marked as utf8. Currently my modified component code call Encode::decode_utf8(). And yes, I can do replace s/decode_utf8/_utf8_on/ to only set utf8 flag.

<% $text %>
<%once>
use Encode qw//;
</%once>
<%init>
# Get language information from session
my $lang = $m->session->{'use_site_lang'};
my $text;

($text) = $m->content =~ m{<$lang>(.+?)</$lang>}s;
if (!defined $text) {
  # no translation - fallback to english
  $lang   = 'en';
  ($text) = $m->content =~ m{<en>(.+?)</en>}s;
}
# decode back to utf8
$text = Encode::decode_utf8($text);
</%init>

Component is than called

<&| /lib/i18n &>
  <en>English text.</en>
  <cs>Czech text.</cs>
#  ... another language can be added
</&>

Is there another way to use utf8 texts in in Mason components?