• no block scopes °
  workaround: use function bodies
• implicit declaration by assignment °
  workaround: you need a dict (hash) for changeable closure vars. So var++ becomes dict["var"]++ , Py3 introduced nonlocal var
• lambdas are limited to one statement only
  workaround: every non trivial subroutine must be named. But this is helped by the fact that lexical subs and nesting of subs are the default in Python. Perl later introduced my sub for this

I have trouble imagining a closure in Perl which can't be translated with one-to-one semantics. Of course with more lines...

That idiomatic things become sometimes bloated in the process is normal, in both directions. (Especially you'll need a lot of named subs in Python, OTOH naming can make the code more self documented.)

> more of impossible than possible. ;-)

If you think otherwise please gimme an example of a hard to translate closure.

update

°) Another issue in Python is variable-hoisting ,tho Pythonistas don't seem to understand the subtle Action at a distance problem resulting from that.