My textfield is n pixels long.
Were it to hold a string longer than n
its right tail end would be out of view.

How, with CSS, do I shift the contents of the relatively
short field to the left, so the right edge of its long
content is visible?

If the text within the field is shorter than n,
then text-align: right will align what's there - rightwards.

However, like I said, were the text > n
it will not display the tail edge, as I wish it could.

Can CSS cut this mustard?

I think I understand what you're saying, but I'm not 100% sure. Could you post a link to a page online as an example if you have one or post some code here.

Your text should naturally wrap to the next line and not get cut off unless you've coded it in a way that it doesn't.