Here's some suggestions to try:

my $ins_sth = $dbh->prepare('INSERT INTO hobby (id,descr,item,latin) V
+ALUES (?,?,?,?)')|| die $dbh->errstr;
my $csvfile="/home/bradley/dbtest/item_instk.csv";
my $id = 1;
open (CSV,"$csvfile");
while (<CSV>) {
        chomp;
        ($item,$descr,$latin) = split('/',$_);
        $ins_sth->execute( $id, $descr, $item, $latin )||die $dbh->err
+str;
        ++$id;
}

close CSV;
[download]

• I've never used bind_param, and as far as I can tell, it's completely unnecessary for what you are trying to do.
• setting $id to 1 inside the while loop will make all of your id's be set to 1 when the data is inserted. Further I suggest that you not use $id at all. Databases have built in functions for generating unique id's and it's much safer to use them than to make them yourself.
• I wouldn't call my statement handle 'select' if it's actually doing an insert. 'sth' is what the perldocs use in the examples...perhaps 'ins_sth' is a more mnemonic name.
• you need to call 'finish' on a statement handle after you are done using it.
• change 'chop' to 'chomp', 'chomp' only removes newlines, and if the last line of your data file doesn't have one, 'chop' would take off the last character of $latin.

I realize that this isn't a direct answer to your question, but I hope that it helps you make things go more smoothly.

Update:Thanks for the corrections runrig

/\/\averick
perl -l -e "eval pack('h*','072796e6470272f2c5f2c5166756279636b672');"

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