Index: pattern-820cccf33c6ac4a4f1564a273137171cfa6ab7cb/pattern/text/__init__.py
===================================================================
--- pattern-820cccf33c6ac4a4f1564a273137171cfa6ab7cb.orig/pattern/text/__init__.py
+++ pattern-820cccf33c6ac4a4f1564a273137171cfa6ab7cb/pattern/text/__init__.py
@@ -305,7 +305,11 @@ def _read(path, encoding="utf-8", commen
         strippping comments and decoding each line to Unicode.
     """
     if path:
-        if isinstance(path, basestring) and os.path.exists(path):
+        try:
+            from_file_path = isinstance(path, basestring) and os.path.exists(path)
+        except UnicodeEncodeError:
+            from_file_path = isinstance(path, basestring) and os.path.exists(encode_utf8(path))
+        if from_file_path:
             # From file path.
             f = open(path, "rb")
         elif isinstance(path, basestring):