This felt like you were pushing a modern usage of "pay" onto an older phrase, so a quick google search of the origin of "pay attention" comes up with this --> https://english.stackexchange.com/a/388607
In Finnish, one could say "Keskity!" and since "keski" is "center" it has some idea of centering oneself? But this is more like, "Focus!" Or you could say, "kiinnittää huomiota" -- to fasten your attention?
That would match the current German version below and makes sense as languages evolved from same tree.