From Reise, Reise · 2004 · Track 1
Reise, Reise
«Rise, rise»
More from the album · Reise, Reise
In context
The title is a trap for translators: it doesn't mean “journey, journey”. It is the call used to wake a ship's crew.
- Sea
- Confinement
- Hierarchy
- Origin
- Gives its name to the fourth album (2004). The lyrics deal with life at sea and are meant as a reference to Herman Melville's “Moby-Dick”.
- The German key
- “Reise” means journey in modern German, so the obvious translation would be “journey, journey”. **It's wrong.** “Reise, reise” doesn't come from “Reise” but from an old root related to “sich erheben”, to rise: it is a fixed formula of sailors' speech, so set that it survived after the word it was built from had come to mean something else. The functional equivalent on board would be a wake-up call along the lines of “up, up!”.
- What the band has said
- The band has not explained the choice of title; the nautical usage is documented in historical German.
- Live
- Performed since 2004, mostly on the album's tour.
Our reading
It is the best example in the catalogue of why this section exists: a machine translation delivers exactly the opposite of what the title says. Together with “Seemann”, from the first album, it forms the band's maritime line — the ship as a place of confinement and hierarchy, not of adventure.
The archive's interpretation, not an official account.
Original (German)
Auch das Meer schreit
Translation
The sea screams too
Verse cited for the purpose of analysis.
A trap for translators
Reise means “journey” in modern German, so the obvious translation would be “journey, journey”. It is wrong.
“Reise, reise” is the morning call used to wake a ship’s crew. It does not come from Reise but from an older root related to sich erheben, to rise. It is a fixed formula of sailors’ speech, so set that it survived after the word forming it had come to mean something else. The functional English equivalent is “rise and shine” aboard ship, not “journey”.
It is the catalogue’s best example of why this section exists: machine translation delivers the exact opposite of what the title says.
Moby-Dick
The lyrics deal with life at sea and are intended as a reference to Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Together with “Seemann” from the first record, it forms the band’s maritime line: the ship as a place of confinement and hierarchy, not adventure.
The album it opens
Reise, Reise (27 September 2004) has a concept worth knowing before listening: its underlying theme is air disasters. The cover art is a damaged cockpit voice recorder, and some original 2004 pressings include a hidden pregap track with the last 30 seconds of the recording from Japan Airlines Flight 123, the 1985 crash.
That illuminates “Dalai Lama”, the album’s other aeroplane song, and confirms the title cuts both ways: the record is named with a call to wake a crew and opens with a black box.
Translation and notes by Rammstein Colombia, for the purpose of analysis. The full original lyrics belong to their authors.