Can I animate the reverse state with css3-Collection of common programming errors

Just use left: 0; for a and use position: relative; in a rather than a:active

Demo

CSS

a {
   display: block;
   background: red;    
   -webkit-transition: left .2s ease-in,margin .2s ease-in;
   -moz-transition: left .2s ease-in,margin .2s ease-in;
   transition: left  .2s ease-in,margin .2s ease-in;
   left: 0;
   position: relative;
}

Just a suggestion, moving links on click will annoy the visitors, why not use it on hover

Demo