[jessejmc]

Is it possible to build a compiler in a high level language, such as Python, Ruby, Clojure, etc...?

Note: This may be an obvious question, but compilers are so far out of my area of experience that I don't even know what questions to ask.

[jbarham]

Absolutely. For example PLY (http://www.dabeaz.com/ply/, "Python Lex-Yacc") has been used to implement simple C and BASIC compilers.