An error message you are not getting suggests you do not have strictures enabled; had they been, you might have been pointed down the Right Way sooner. IMO, always a good idea to enable strictures – and warnings! (Example code run under Strawberry 5.10.1, but should perform identically under any version.) 

>perl -w -le
"my @ra = (X => Y);
 print qq{@ra};
"
X Y

>perl -wMstrict -le
"my @ra = (X => Y);
 print qq{@ra};
"
Bareword "Y" not allowed while "strict subs" in use at ...
Execution of -e aborted due to compilation errors.

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In reply to Re: Error: Can't use string as a hash ref by AnomalousMonk
in thread Error: Can't use string as a hash ref by Nocturnus

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