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

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