I wouldn't try to do it all in a jumbo regex. Why not a simple split? 
    sub translate {
        my $str    = shift;
        my @chunks = split /<(\d+)>/ => $str;
        my @results;

        while (@chunks) {
            my ($number, $string) = splice @chunks => 0, 2;
            if ($number == 30) {
                ...
            }
            else {
                push @results => '@(' . $hash {$number} . ')',
                                 qq {"$string"};
            }
        }
 
        join ";" => @results;
    }

[download]

Abigail

In reply to Re: Smart Search and Replacement with RegEx by Abigail-II
in thread Smart Search and Replacement with RegEx by shelob101

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