By wielding the Futamura projections [0][1][2], any interpreter may be turned into a compiler. Perl is handled as one case. Crucially, the resulting compiler need not be fast; if the interpreter is slow, then the compiler will be slow too (this is a special case of the central meme from [3], "if the N'th Futamura projection has quality Q, then the N+1'th Futamura projection will also have quality Q.")

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial_evaluation#Futamura_pr...

[1] http://blog.sigfpe.com/2009/05/three-projections-of-doctor-f...

[2] https://www.gwern.net/docs/cs/2009-gluck.pdf

[3] https://www.itu.dk/people/sestoft/pebook/