color codes to eval

[Ray Andrews <rayandrews@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

      var="${red}howdy${nrm}"    # '$(red}' is just a color code, no
      problem there.
      print -l $var
      eval "print -l $var"
      
      ... shows:
      
      howdy   
      (eval):1: bad pattern: ^[[31
      
      ... Is there a way to feed color codes to eval?  Seems to me I
      remember that there's some ${(?) var} ... some flag in there that
      does it.