$foo = qq{^snafu^|^foobar^\n};

$foo =~ m/\A(\W)  # \A instead of ^ and match first non-word
          [^\1]+? # Match everything that isn't in \1
          \1(\W)  # Match non-word following the 2nd \1
         /xms;

$text_qual = $1;
$field_sep = $2;

print "[$text_qual]\n";
print "[$field_sep]\n";

##</code><code>##

[^]
[|]