syntax error at perl1.pl line 8, near "say $text;'"

Note the single-quote just after the ; (semicolon) in "say $text;'". This closes the quoted code that began with an opening single-quote just after the -E on the first line of the command line invocation in johngg's reply. Get rid of that closing single-quote if you are running the code from a file and things will probably work better.