Summary Seed priming is a pre‐sowing treatment that enables more efficient and uniform seed germination; however, it negatively affects seed longevity. In this work, the mRNA dynamics underlying a hydropriming treatment have been investigated. Polysome profiling was performed on seeds during different stages of hydropriming. Ribosome nascent chain complex sequencing (RNC‐seq) elucidated transcriptomic and translatomic changes during the priming treatment. In contrast to mature dry seeds, hydroprimed seeds contain more mRNA‐ribosome complexes, suggesting that the mRNAs that need to be translated during germination are already associated with ribosomes in the primed seeds, leading to a quicker restart of translation and thus faster germination upon re‐imbibition. As a result of priming, seeds lose part of their stress‐related transcriptome. This work highlights genes that might play a role in increasing the rate of germination after priming.