#!/usr/bin/perl
use 5.016;
use Data::Dumper;

my $text = "blah blah ;; yada yada ;; etc etc \n
A much longer field ;; yada yada ;; etc etc";

my @arr = split /(;;)/,$text;   # capture delimiter

say Dumper @arr;

##</code><code>##

C:\> 1036247.pl
$VAR1 = 'blah blah ';
$VAR2 = ';;';
$VAR3 = ' yada yada ';
$VAR4 = ';;';
$VAR5 = ' etc etc

A much longer field ';
$VAR6 = ';;';
$VAR7 = ' yada yada ';
$VAR8 = ';;';
$VAR9 = ' etc etc';