Transpose utf-8 string columns as rows and vice versa

transpose.py

#!/usr/bin/python
#
# transpose.py (C) 2012 Yrjo Kari-Koskinen <ykk@peruna.fi>
#
# This program is licensed under Version 2 of the GPL.
#
# Transpose utf-8 string columns as rows and vice versa
# You might need to set PYTHONIOENCODING=utf_8 before calling transpose.py

import sys

lines = []

for line in sys.stdin.readlines():
    lines.append(unicode(line, "utf-8"))

firstLine = lines[0]

i = 0
while firstLine[i] != '\n':
    translatedLine = u""
    for line in lines:
        translatedLine = translatedLine + line[i]
    print(translatedLine)
    i = i + 1