String::Escape seems to do what you ask.

print printable( "\tNow is the time\nfor all good folks\n" ); 
\tNow is the time\nfor all good folks\n
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tested code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use String::Escape qw( printable ) ;

open(FILE," text.txt");
while(<FILE>){
   print printable($_);
}
close(FILE);
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-p